Rice cereal, formula, purees and puffs. They\u2019re among the most popular products purchased from the baby food aisle. And they share one more thing in common: They likely contain toxic metals.
\nWhat\u2019s more, the U.S. doesn\u2019t have the kind of strict regulations for commercially produced baby foods that parents might expect. That\u2019s according to the findings of a recent UB-led study that outlined risk prevention strategies for parents and health care professionals.
\n\u201cIt is concerning that there are gaps in food contaminant federal guidelines, particularly for baby foods. Parents might expect and trust that their infant\u2019s commercially produced baby food is automatically protected by tightly regulated guidelines, but that is just not the case,\u201d says the study\u2019s lead author, Sarah J. Ventre, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.
\nVentre and her co-authors decided to examine the issue after reports of toxic metals in baby foods became more widespread in 2019, prompting families to raise safety concerns. The researchers reviewed several recent studies and an analysis commissioned by Healthy Babies Bright Futures \u2014 all of which have reported that toxic elements such as arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium have been found in popular baby foods \u2014 in an effort to help parents, caregivers and health care professionals make sense of the potential risks and offer guidance.
\n\u201cAs a pediatrician, my goal is to provide parents with the tools to keep their children healthy and safe,\u201d says Ventre, who is also part of UBMD Pediatrics and serves as co-medical director for the Buffalo Public Schools.
\nAfter the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) developed an action plan for reducing toxic metals in baby foods in 2019, it issued draft guidance for lead in juices in April 2022 and lead in baby foods just last month. But the FDA has not yet offered guidance for arsenic, mercury or cadmium, leading to concerns that regulatory changes may not be coming quickly enough.
\nToxic elements can be consumed from a variety of sources, including water, baby formula, breast milk, homemade purees and baby foods like cereals, fruits and vegetables, and fruit juices. When toxic elements are ingested with food or water, they are absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and enter the bloodstream.
\n\u201cA big concern is that the testing reveals multiple toxic elements in many of the foods, which means that we are dealing with multiple issues,\u201d says study senior author Katarzyna Kordas, associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health, School of Public Health and Health Professions.
\n\u201cIf you add to this the pesticides that are intentionally used when growing foods, the problem becomes almost too large to think about. Do you address one toxicant at a time? Try to deal with all of them at once? Which foods do you focus on?\u201d adds Kordas, who studies the health effects of exposure to lead and other harmful metals and chemicals, particularly in children.
\nInfants and young children are especially vulnerable to the effects of exposure to toxic elements, the researchers note, adding that little research has been done to identify the extent to which toxic element exposure from diet contributes to the health effects that can be caused in children exposed to such metals early in life. Those effects include cognitive function deficits, lower socioeconomic status and difficult personality traits well into adulthood for children exposed to lead. Arsenic, meanwhile, is associated with lung and bladder cancers in adulthood.
\n\u201cWe know that a wide range of foods are contaminated and that higher consumption of those foods is related to body levels of those contaminants in children,\u201d Kordas adds. \u201cBut does the exposure to contaminants specifically through foods harm the health of young children? We don\u2019t know that for sure, and it is uncomfortable to have few definitive answers for parents.\u201d
\nWhile some parents may want to completely eliminate certain food products because they fear they could be exposing their children to toxicants, the researchers say that\u2019s not the best course of action. Instead, they suggest feeding children a varied diet consisting of many different foods and food types.
\n\u201cIt is important to focus on the fact that although foods have been found to contain toxic elements, several of these foods are rich in nutrients that are necessary for children\u2019s growth and development,\u201d says paper co-author Gauri Desai, clinical assistant professor of epidemiology and environmental health. \u201cEliminating some foods from children\u2019s diets may deprive them of the benefits that those foods have to offer.\u201d
\nIn addition to varying a child\u2019s diet, the researchers also recommend ensuring clean drinking water, providing breast milk for the first 1-2 years if possible, and limiting juice intake.
\nWhen it comes to baby formula, while there is some data on which brands may have the lowest levels of heavy metals, it remains challenging to identify which formulas are safest, researchers say, adding that parents and health care providers can advocate for tighter FDA control parameters for infant formula.
\n\u201cWhile providing guidance to parents and health care providers is important, the most conclusive way to protect the safety of food ingested by infants and children is through the establishment of stronger guidelines and enforcing those guidelines,\u201d says Ventre.<\/p>\n
Buffalo<\/p>\n
Tags\uff1ababy food, toxic metals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rice cereal, formula, purees and puffs. They\u2019re among the most popular products purchased from the baby food aisle. And they share one more thing in common: They likely contain toxic metals. What\u2019s more, the U.S. doesn\u2019t have the kind of strict regulations for commercially produced baby foods that parents might expect. That\u2019s according to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[1882,1974,2303],"class_list":["post-5493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-baby","tag-they","tag-toxic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5495,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions\/5495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}