Sugar doesn’t belong in babyfood, we all know that. Unfortunately there are still too many babyfood products on the market that contain some form of sugar. How can you recognise these sugars and what about sugars in Groats? Let’s talk sugar:

First things first, sugar does NOT belong in an 8 month old’s food pattern. We’re referring to added, processed sugars. These are the sugars that cause high spikes in your blood sugar and don’t add any nutrients to our body. These differ from natural sugars such as fruit, but even in this group we need to be cautious.
You’ll rarely find the word “sugar” in the ingredients section but look out for these:

• Maltodextrine
• Glucose
• Maltose
• Isoglucose
• Sucrose
• Sacharose

These are all examples of added, fast, processed sugars. So are natural sugars a better alternative? Natural fruit sugars are fine and can even be beneficial but processed natural sugars, fructose, is often too concentrated resulting in giving your body a similar effect as processed sugars. In babyfood we often find these as fruit concentrates, syrups or fruit puree. Too much of anything is harmful. So, also pay attention for these terms:

• Fructose
• Syrup
• Fruit concentrate

So, what about Groats? Well, that’s the best news! Our fruit doesn’t go through a cooking or concentrating process and therefore has the same nutritional value as its natural equivalent. Groats won’t cause any spiking in your baby’s blood sugar and are even suitable for diabetics.