1y ago

Report finds Nestlé adds sugars to baby food in low-income countries

www.nbcnews.com

Experts say there can be long-term health consequences for babies and infants who consume too much sugar at a young age.

In Switzerland, the label of Nestlé’s Cerelac baby cereal says it contains “no added sugar.” But in Senegal and South Africa, the same product has 6 grams of added sugar per serving, according to a recent Public Eye investigation. And in the Philippines, one serving of a version of the Cerelac cereal for babies 1 to 6 months old contains a whopping 7.3 grams of added sugar, the equivalent of almost two teaspoons.

This “double standard” for how Nestlé creates and markets its popular baby food brands around the world was alleged in a report from Public Eye, an independent nonpartisan Swiss-based investigative organization, and International Baby Food Action Network.

The groups allege that Nestlé adds sugars and honey to some of its baby cereal and formula in lower-income countries, while products sold in Europe and other countries are advertised with “no added sugars.” The disparities uncovered in the report, which was published in the BMJ in April, has raised alarms among global health experts.

Ethical Consumerism @sh.itjust.works

DominusOfMegadeus @sh.itjust.works

1y ago

Report finds Nestlé adds sugars to baby food in low-income countries

www.nbcnews.com /health/health-news/report-finds-nestle-adds-sugars-baby-food-low-income-countries-rcna150562

62 comments

Fuck Nestle.
- Everyone says that. Have been for decades now.
  But as long as our major politicians are Republicans and neoliberals, nothing is going to change.
  Because their whole economical philosophy is corporations over money and that wealth "trickles down".
  You want to do something about Nestle?
  Vote progressives, especially ones that eschew corporate donors.
  I'm just tired of the vast majority of people being against something,, but (at least for Americans) voting for people who like it.
  https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000042332
  We need to get rid of the shit show that is American lobbying, and only progressives push for that
  
  But as long as our major politicians are Republicans and neoliberals, nothing is going to change.
  Those poorer countries have governments too. They should be the first line of defense for their citizens. Fuck Nestle and all their products, but the reality is that there's absolutely nothing a foreign power can do to protect the people living in those countries
  
  I am confused why you're talking about USA. The article doesn't mention USA, and Nestle is a Swiss company.
  I mean, better regulations in the US would be great though
- All my homies hate Nestle
  
  I told my kid no to some nestle brand of bottled water and explained to him why in the water aisle at Walmart and I met a random who congratulated me on knowing and rejecting them.
  We exist, and there are enough of us, that I pulled a random in a town of less than 20,000!
The same company that gave out free baby formular to poor African families and then, after a couple of months, went "nuh-uh you now have to pay so your babies don't die lol"? Surprising.
- And after the mother's stopped producing their own milk, when they only had dirty water to mix with the formula.
- If we didn't live in corporatocracies masquerading as "democracies" the execs and managers who pulled that shit would be serving life in prison.
  Edit: Note that Nestle did this so the mothers would stop producing milk and their babies survival would become dependent on Nestle — pure unadulterated psychopathy!
  
  corporatocracies masquerading as “democracies”
  Thank you. I've been trying so hard to figure out exactly what's going on in the world and the "democracy is best no matter what" mentality a lot of useful idiots seem to believe.
  This sums it up very well.
- Let's not forget they dressed their workers as nurses
They’ve been criminally evil forever. Fuck Nestlé.
If you can commit an evil with food or water rest assured, Nestle® is on it.
Evil aside, what is the benefit to Nestle of adding sugar? It's not like the babies are asking for the high sugar stuff at the grocery store...
- It's less expensive than the other ingredients and is additictive.
  
  They'd put heroin in baby formula if it was cheap and they could get away with it.
#FCKNSTL
This is the best summary I could come up with:
And in the Philippines, one serving of a version of the Cerelac cereal for babies 1 to 6 months old contains a whopping 7.3 grams of added sugar, the equivalent of almost two teaspoons.
In the European Region, the World Health Organization guidelines state that no added sugar should be used in foods for infants under the age of 3.
And the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in Nigeria released a statement in response to the report that said the Nestlé products in the country do adhere to their standards.
A spokesperson for Nestlé told NBC News that the company is working on reducing added sugars worldwide and offers sugar-free products in several countries.
All our early life foods and milks are nutritionally balanced as defined in the commonly accepted scientific guidelines and dietary recommendations, including CODEX.”
Siddiqui said that monetary stressors might also be influencing parents to continue buying added sugar formulas and baby cereals that their children appear to like.
The original article contains 1,039 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 84%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- I would love it if the auto TL;DR bot would summarize every article about nestle with simply, “Fuck nestle” and save its compute cycles for other news.
"Sweet!" - Eric Cartman.
I've known this for years. Why is it news now?
- So it shouldn’t continue to be exposed ? Let the bad news (for Nestle) blow over ?
  
  Nothing wrong with that at all. I'm just not sure what new information there is here? This is a "Today I learned" not a "today we learned."
This really doesn't have much to do with Nestlé. This is about the purchasing habits of consumers in different markets as influenced by global wealth inequality, lacking education, and inadequate access to healthcare. While large corporations absolutely have certain influence on those factors, this issue of more sugar in some products is so far downstream from the real problems that it's just a useless distraction.
- High sugar for poor babies doesn't concern you?
  
  Nestlé isn't the only brand of baby food available in those markets, they sit right next to products that do have that "no added sugar" label. But that healthier alternative is not what sells better, the cheaper ones do, why? Because the consumers in those markets either can't afford the healthy food or they lack the education to know the importance of a good diet.
  What products are available on a market is a reflection of the purchasing habits of the consumers in that market, and those habits are a result of the macro socioeconomic factors of the region. If Nestlé changed all their products to be "no added sugar" right now then the prices of those products would need to be bumped up slightly which would mean the consumers would shift to another brand that's cheaper which has the same issue and hey presto nothing has changed.
  Nestlés products having added sugar is not the problem it is a symptom.
  So what do we do if we want to solve these big problems? Well that's not easy, it largely depends on the governments and people of those regions, but we can help. There are charities like plan-international.org which tries to directly tackle inequality and education, but driving economic activity can also help, maybe next time you go grocery shopping you buy a Senegal peanut oil or a pack of batteries from The Philippines. These are big hard problems that won't be easily solved, but if we are to have any chance to fixing them we need to be able to identify what the problem is, getting mad at a brand is a lot easier than recognizing the underlying issues.

62 comments