From Johnny Johnny to baby bottles: How sugar sneaks into your baby's diet

We all remember the nursery rhyme "Johnny Johnny Yes Papa" about a child who gets caught eating sugar by his father.

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As innocent as it was, the rhyme has more meaning than we ever could have thought.

Sugar is one of the most controversial yet important ingredients that has been part of manufactured products since the 1970s. From breakfast cereals to flavoured drinks, sugar has seeped into almost every processed food in the market. But why is sugar added to manufactured food items like energy drinks or even baby formulas?

WHY IS SUGAR ADDED TO HEALTH DRINKS?

Experts believe that sugar or sucrose, made up of glucose and fructose, which is extracted from crushed sugarcane or beets, is used for its functional properties. This means it helps in enhancing the flavour of the product, its sweetness, improving mouthfeel and texture, colour formation, fermentation and preservation.Although there's a daily limit to our sugar intake, indulging in these manufactured products increases the risks of several detrimental health illnesses.

The worst part is: sugar is addictive. You can't stop at one. Manufacturers often sell this idea to increase their sales and produce more products with higher percentages of sugar.

The recent Nestle controversy involving high amounts of sugar in baby formula like Cerelac, brought to light the devastating impact of this saccharine seduction on infants, especially children below the age of 2.