The sense of protecting your baby as you hold them for the first time, the urge to shield them from harm, the promise you make to yourself and the baby—that you will only provide the best for your child—the feeling of becoming a new mother truly elates you in ways you couldn’t have imagined. As new mothers, you aspire to become super moms who want to give your baby the best of everything—cute clothes, beautiful hairbands, the finest shoes, enrolling them in top schools, but most importantly, providing them with the BEST NUTRITION. Nutrition is one aspect of childhood that shouldn’t be ignored because it's only when the kids eat healthily that they’ll grow well.
While new or millennial mothers are increasingly aware of baby food products available in the market and the ingredients that go into them, your trust is still often compromised by misleading marketing and promises. The consequence of making a decision based on misinformation could lead to consuming unhealthy food and affect your child’s overall well-being. Regrettably, the Indian baby food market is flooded with products with misleading, gimmicky claims and half-truths. To help you make better and wiser decisions next time you go grocery shopping for your child, here are a few points to keep in mind:
1) Read the ingredient list on the back of the pack carefully. Be cautious when you find ingredients like ‘Additives’, ‘Emulsifiers’, ‘Stabilisers’, ‘Nature Identical Flavours & Colours’, ‘Hydrogenated Fat’, ‘Palm Oil’, ‘Pectin’, ‘Concentrates’ etc. The rule of thumb is - if you can find that ingredient in your kitchen, only then it should be considered safe. Anything else - just say NO.
2) Less is more - a product containing fewer ingredients is generally (but not always) better than products with 10-15 ingredients.
3) Ingredients are always listed in descending order by proportion. Simply put, the first ingredient mentioned is in the highest quantity of the next. The good ingredients like fruits and vegetables should be listed first and the bad ingredients like salt, and sugar should be listed at the end. Stay away from products where ‘sugar’ is mentioned as one of the first three ingredients. So next time you buy Ragi biscuits, make sure Ragi is the first ingredient mentioned.
4) ‘Organic’ doesn’t mean healthy - ‘Organic’ simply means that the product is made using organic ingredients. A product loaded with ‘Organic Sugar’ or ‘Organic Salt’ is still unhealthy even if it is certified organic. An ‘organic’ product with no nutritional content is still an unhealthy product.
5) ‘Raw Sugar’, ‘Cane Sugar’, and ‘Jaggery’ are all SUGARS - brands try to mislead consumers in various ways. They write ‘No Refined Sugar’ on the front of the pack in bold letters, and add ‘Raw Sugar’ instead. Any type of added Sugar is always bad for you. Though consuming Jaggery is slightly better than consuming raw or refined sugar, Jaggery is still a type of SUGAR. The difference between Jaggery, Raw Sugar and Refined Sugar is mainly its sucrose content. Jaggery contains 80-90% sucrose, Raw Sugar contains 97% sucrose and Refined Sugar contains 99.5% sucrose.
Well, while the market may continue to peddle misleading claims, what can you do to safeguard your little one from these gimmicks? To start, you can always rely on home-cooked fresh food. However, balancing work and home can make this challenging.
Hence, to offer you complete peace of mind and to make your life a bit easier, you can use One Little Farm’s pureed meals for your baby. We are on a mission to transform the baby food industry in India so that your little ones can get the most nutrition in every bite.
And here’s giving you reasons why you must choose One Little Farm:
1) Nutrition In Every Bite: Preparing home-cooked food every day, keeping in mind the exact proportion of nutrients to feed your baby, is a task. Hence, we have created delicious pureed meals that pack the most nutrition in every bite. Our purees contain the right balance of fat, protein, and carbohydrates, incorporating vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds in each meal. This helps the baby feel full, promoting better sleep. And we don't just mix ingredients randomly; every meal is prepared with the intention of making a baby healthy and happy with the utmost safety
2) 100% Natural and Whole Ingredients: We take pride in consistently choosing the harder path, buying the finest bananas from one farm, the best spinach from another, and the highest quality coconuts from yet another. Our ingredients are carefully sourced from honest, trusted farms and are tested regularly for heavy metals & pesticides. Moreover, there’s nothing artificial ever in our food – just real ingredients grown by real people. No additives, no preservatives, no nature identical flavours, no emulsifiers, no added colours, no added salt or sugar.
3) Gently Cooked In Small Batches: Instead of subjecting ingredients to repeated high heat, as most baby food companies do, everything we make is prepared from whole ingredients and processed gently in small batches. We take the time to prepare each ingredient separately. It's the difference between carefully blanching the spinach or boiling it into a mushy mess. Instead of heating all our ingredients together, we analyze the best way to achieve maximum nutrient density from each fruit or vegetable.
4) Shelf Stable Without Any Preservatives: Our retort process ensures maximum nutrition retention because everything remains sealed within the pouch. Additionally, this process keeps the fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals almost entirely intact. Therefore, when feeding your little one our purees, you can feel confident that they are entirely safe and free from preservatives.