Every parent wants to feed the best food to their child. But many times because we are unaware, we tend to feed certain food to kids that can actually cause harm. 

Here is a list of seemingly healthy foods that are actually harmful to children. 

1. Sugary drinks: Carbonated drinks, sports drinks, juices all contain high amounts of sugar and empty calories. A glass of packaged juice contains 5 to 6 teaspoons sugar. This sugar gets absorbed into the bloodstream which is bad for the metabolism of carbohydrates. Added to that food colour and preservatives cause more harm than good. Opt for fresh fruits instead of fruit juices. The fibre content in the fruit helps the sugar to be absorbed gradually. Unflavoured milk and water are the best drinks for children. Freshly squeezed 100% fruit juice can be given occasionally. 

2. Flavoured yoghurt: Yogurts with fruit contain a lot of sugar, fat, and calories which leads to children becoming overweight and increases their risk of getting diabetes. Give home-made curd or natural ones only. If your child doesn’t like plain curd, don’t bother trying flavoured ones in order to get them to eat curd. 

3. Cereals: Flakes, muesli, and other similar foods are advertised to be the best breakfast claiming that they contain a lot of vitamins and minerals. In reality, these foods don’t contain any healthy elements. They are again full of sugar. All of the healthy elements like corn, wheat, and oats are stripped of nutrition during manufacturing and only carbohydrates are left. These foods do not satisfy hunger and soon your child will be hungry again. Replace breakfast cereal with oatmeal. Add fruits and nuts to make it tastier and healthier. 

4. Health drinks: If you read the ingredients of some of the popular health drinks for children, you will understand just how much sugar they contain. Claiming to increase appetite, height and weight in children, these powders are nothing but a lot of sugar combined with chemicals and preservatives. Opt for fresh home-cooked meals to provide the necessary vitamins and minerals to your child. 

5. Multivitamins: No matter how harmless animal-shaped vitamins look, they should only be prescribed by doctors. Children should get their necessary vitamins from food, there is no need to give them any supplements.

6. Milkshakes: Scoop some ice-cream into milk, blend in a blender and creamy milkshake is ready! Faced between a choice of soda and milkshake, any parent would opt for a milkshake, isn’t it? But milkshakes are as dangerous as soda because of the high sugar and fat content. Drinking fatty drinks regularly can lead to the development of cardiovascular diseases.

7. Fruit Snacks: Fruits snacks are marketed to be as healthy as eating fresh fruit. This cannot be further away from the truth. They are loaded with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colours and preservatives, sweetened with fruit juice and contain very little actual fruit. They stick to children's teeth and cause dental caries. Opt for real fruit only. 

8. Candies and Lollipops: These are again just sugar, artificial colours, preservatives and flavours. They sit in the mouth for a long time and cause dental cavities. 

9. Packaged Pasta & noodles: Packaged pasta and noodles have more sodium in one serving than is recommended for a child in an entire day. They are made of refined flour which lacks fibre and nutrients. Go for whole wheat pasta instead and cook it with homemade vegetable sauce. They are just as tasty and much more healthy. 

10.  Honey: Children before the age of one should not be given honey. Honey may contain spores of bacteria that can cause botulism. 

Eating the above foods regularly makes child’s taste buds used to high sugar/sodium. In the long run, these can be very harmful. Sweets are desserts and should not replace normal food. Get your child used to eat whole foods that are rich in fibre, low on sugar and salt. 

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