http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/06/18/2003648909

Concern over children's snacks

DIFFERENCE OF OPINION: Experts were divided, with some warning of the effects of an excessive intake of additives, while another was more concerned about sugar content

TAIPEI TIMES  Sat, Jun 18, 2016

By Wu Liang-yi, Line Yen-tung and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

A new report by the Child Welfare League Foundation shows that more than 50 percent of children eat high-sodium and high-cholesterol snacks at least once a week and 29 percent eat such snacks more than once a week on average, leading to concerns over increased rates of obesity in children as well as more cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The foundation said that a large portion of snacks that target children under 12 years old contain a multitude of chemical compounds due to the manufacturers styling the snacks after Disney and Marvel comic characters.

MacKay Memorial Hospital’s Liu Po-en (劉伯恩) said excessive intake of food additives could cause side effects in children diagnosed with asthma or glucose-6-phosphate–dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, adding that for children with G6PD symptoms, ingesting snacks with artificial coloring might cause hemolysis.

Taipei Veterans General Hospital department of clinical toxicology head Yang Chen-chang (楊振昌) said that medical journal the Lancet has featured a paper claiming that the ingestion of multiple kinds of artificial coloring and the preservative benzoic acid might cause symptoms that could be diagnosed as ADHD.

While the paper has not been scientifically proven, it is wise to prevent children from ingesting large quantities of artificial compounds, Yang said.

The Consumers’ Foundation said that of all the food additives, the ones lacking the most amount of scientific information are spices.

Foundation chief inspector Ling Young-chien (凌永健) said that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should require manufacturers to include the spices used in their products in nutritional content labels.

Lin also called on research institutes to focus on studies that reveal how food additives affect children’s health.

If children adopt a habit of eating brightly colored and heavily flavored food, their sense of smell and taste would eventually become numb and would need further stimulation, leading them to adopt a diet of heavily flavored food, Lin said.

However, Taipei Medical University professor Chen Chun-jung (陳俊榮) said that food additives are not the prime source of concern, adding that instead more emphasis should be placed on the high number of calories, low nutritional value and high sugar content found in the snacks.

There is usually a very low amount of food additives and the amount should not affect the health of children, Chen said, but added that the high sugar content could cause obesity, hyperactivity and dental cavities.

Meanwhile, the FDA said all colorings, flavorings and preservatives have to approved by the administration and that there are regulations in place on the amount of additives that can be contained in food products.

Regular inspections of products on the market are conducted and any violation is immediately made known to the public, the administration said.