January 29, 2008

Parents warned about ready made food

The hidden amounts of salt in ready made foods could be taking the salt intake levels of children over the recommended daily levels, with just one serving of a supermarket bought pudding containing almost half of the daily intake.

There are many foods which are surprising high in salt because they are foods that you would not normally associated which containing any salt at all in the first place and therefore feel that your children would be ok to eat as much as they wanted.

A certain make of baked beans contains 2.8 grams of salt which is almost the entire daily allowance for a six year old, while a Cornish pasty would take them over at 3.2 grams, and yet even in a bowl of rice krispies, there is more salt than a bag of crisps. Those three items could quite easily form part of a daily diet for a young child.

Source [Telegraph]