Milk products for kids not necessarily healthy: expert  

儿童牛奶含十多种添加剂 专家建议孩子少喝

“采取独特配方”、“补充钙铁锌”、“开发智力”……这些词汇出现在儿童牛奶的广告中，非常吸引眼球。打着这些招牌的牛奶也备受家长喜爱。然而，儿童牛奶的添加剂比普通牛奶多，专家表示，孩子尽量少喝。 [查看全文]

(ECNS) – Advertisements for "children's" milk boast nutritional content such as calcium, iron and zinc, but the products also contain many more additives than regular milk, according to the Chongqing Morning News.

These additives include fragrance essence, Nutrasweet, sodium phosphate, xanthan gum, sodium citrate and more, the newspaper said.

Moreover, milk products targeting children cost more than other types. A paper box containing 200 milliliters sells for 4.5 to 5 yuan, compared to 3.5 yuan for 250 milliliters of regular milk.

A mother of a 5-year-old said she had bought the milk for her daughter for more than a year, thinking it would be a healthy nutritional supplement, but never paid attention to the ingredients list.

Li then worried that milk containing so many additives might not be healthy and decided not to let her daughter drink too much of it.

Another parent surnamed Wang said his 3-year-old son needs the supplements from the milk, but was unsure if the additives did any harm.

Jiang Zhiyang, a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, said the additives in milk for kids are allowed by Chinese authorities, but that they may increase the burden on children's kidneys and livers.

Jiang advised that children should drink as little of it as possible. "When children have a normal intake of food, they don't need additional supplements," Jiang said.