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Before giving birth, Xiaomi was completely ignorant of cheese. By chance, when Xiaomi took its 2-year-old daughter Xiao Xiaomi past the cheese counter of the supermarket, Xiao Xiaomi tried a children's cheese and said" it was "delicious and wants to buy it." The promoter introduced that "this is a children's cheese specially for children, the nutritional value is very high, the calcium content is several times that of milk, delicious and calcium supplementation." Xiaomi himself also checked it out and found that cheese is indeed a good calcium supplement, so he bought a small bag with the mentality of trying it.
Xiaomi has since fallen in love with children's cheese and goes straight to the cheese counter every time he goes to the supermarket. Although the price of children's cheese is not cheap, but because the daughter loves to eat, and can supplement calcium, it is more expensive.
◎ Supermarkets are full of children's cheese products. / 39 Health Photo
But recently, Xiaomi met a pediatric health care doctor, and when chatting with her, he actually said that "it is not recommended to give children children's cheese often." Xiaomi was confused, and the children's cheese that had been eaten for a few years for the child was actually eaten wrong? Doesn't it say it's good to give your child cheese? Children's cheese is a cheese specially given to children, shouldn't it be more suitable for children than regular cheese? Why not recommend it?
PART.01
Why give your child cheese?
Cheese (also known as cheese) is a fermented milk product, compared with milk, cheese has better nutritional value and nutrient density, and probiotics are added during the fermentation process, which is also beneficial to health.
1 Cheese is a source of high-quality calcium
The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that cheese is one of the good sources of calcium for children and adolescents. Because cheese is made of milk, the milk calcium is the only source of calcium that can be 100% absorbed by the human body, and cheese is equivalent to concentrated milk, and its calcium content is equivalent to several times that of milk and yogurt, for children with small food intake, eating cheese is more suitable than drinking milk calcium supplementation.
2 Cheese is a great source of protein
Protein is very important for your child's growth and development, and milk and cheese are both very good sources of protein.
3 Improve immunity
Probiotics are added to the cheese process to help regulate the child's intestinal flora, and the rich protein, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, etc. in cheese are also very helpful for improving the child's immunity.
4 Prevent caries
Cheese can reduce the acidity in the mouth, help to avoid the formation of an acidic environment that tooth decay prefers, and also protect the enamel of the teeth, so children often eat cheese to help prevent the formation of caries.
PART.02
Is children's cheese really better?
Like Xiaomi, many parents think that "children's cheese is a special food for children, and it is definitely better than ordinary cheese", but is this really the case?
1 Nutrients
Cheese is divided into natural cheese and remastered cheese. Natural cheese is made of raw milk (milk, goat milk, etc.) as raw materials, after concentration, fermentation, food safety national standard cheese (GB 5420-2021) stipulates: cheese in the process of processing in addition to raw milk other food raw materials added no more than 8%.
Reconstituted cheese refers to the reprocessing of natural cheese or casein as raw materials. In the National Standard for Food Safety Reproduced Cheese (GB 25192-2010), the requirement for reproduced cheese is that "the proportion of cheese is greater than 15%". So the real cheese you buy may only exceed 15% of the real cheese ingredients, and the remaining about 80% of the ingredients may be water, gelatin, carrageenan, emulsified salt, sugar and various additives.
◎ The Definition of Remastered Cheese in the National Standard for Food Safety: Remastered Cheese.
It is understood that more than 90% of the cheese products on the market under the banner of "children" are "reconstituted cheese".
◎ Most children's cheeses are remade cheese. / Web screenshots
In addition, a closer look at the nutritional composition list of these "children's cheese" products shows that in addition to the high content of calcium, the content of salt and sugar is also generally high.
For example, a popular children's cheese, its sodium content of 374mg / 100g, carbohydrates of 18.6g / 100g, and the World Health Organization recommends that the daily intake of sodium for children aged 1-3 years should not exceed 650mg, and older children should not exceed 900mg, if children eat 100g of this kind of children's cheese a day, sodium intake is almost half of the recommended daily intake, and excessive intake of sugar will bring obesity, caries and other health problems.
◎ Nutritional ingredients and ingredient list of a brand of children's cheese. / 39 Health Photo
Additives such as locust bean gum, carrageenan, potassium sorbate, sodium citrate and other additives in the ingredient list have no nutrition and may also affect the child's sense of taste, and long-term consumption may also cause the child's picky eating problem, and in severe cases, it may even cause malnutrition.
Therefore, parents who want to supplement their children's calcium by eating children's cheese may make their children lose more than they lose!
2 Value for money
Many parents give their children cheese because of the high calcium and high nutritional value of cheese, but the true "cheese" content of most children's cheese is not high, so the cost performance is very low.
◎ Price comparison between children's cheese and natural cheese. / 39 Health System
As can be seen from the above table, some children's cheese seems to be cheaper than natural cheese, but after conversion, for every 100g of pure cheese, children's cheese needs to pay 2-3 times the price of ordinary natural cheese, of which No. 4 children's cheese is 5.4 times that of No. 1 natural cheese because of its emphasis on high calcium (with additional calcium additions).
Another remastered cheese (non-children's cheese) of the same brand as "Children's Cheese No. 3" is less than half the price of pure cheese for less than half the price of children's cheese.
So, giving kids kids cheese is really not worth it!
PART.03
How do I choose cheese for my child?
Giving children's cheese to children can indeed supplement calcium, but comprehensive consideration is not the best choice, and children's cheese is not suitable for children to eat every day and eat for a long time. So how do we choose cheese for our children?
1 Look at the category
Depending on whether the packaging indicates "original cheese" or "remastered cheese", the original cheese is preferred. If not clearly marked, look at the ingredient list, if the raw material is written "cheese", the product is a remastered cheese.
2 Look at the sterilization method
Choose cheese with the word "pasteurization" to reduce the risk of contracting germs such as Listeria, Salmonella and E. coli. The raw material of remade cheese products such as children's cheese is "dry cheese", so many of them do not label the sterilization method of their raw materials.
3 Look at the nutrition facts list
When purchasing cheese, you must first look at the nutritional composition list of the product, try to choose low sugar, low sodium products, do not understand the standard, you can see the calcium-sodium ratio (calcium-sodium ratio = calcium content / sodium content), try to choose calcium-sodium ratio greater than 1 cheese.