Organic Formula Stirs Worries About Sugar

Recipe for popular brand includes tooth-rotting sucrose
By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 19, 2008 11:40 AM CDT
Organic Formula Stirs Worries About Sugar
Sweet foods tend to make babies consume larger amounts, a factor which could play into increased rates of childhood obesity.   (Getty Images)

Although it controls more than a third of the organic baby formula market, Similac Organic also carries a less coveted distinction: It is the only brand in the category that contains cane sugar, or sucrose. The company says its is FDA approved, but many parents and doctors worry about starting babies on the extra-sweet formula, the New York Times reports.

Experts worry about accelerated tooth decay, the possibility that added sugar trains babies to want sweeter foods, and the potential link to childhood obesity; Europe has banned sucrose in formulas partly for those reasons. Says a doctor, “That organic formula would be sweeter might not be a health risk, but it certainly isn’t what the parents have in mind.” (More public health stories.)

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