Baby Food With Higher Protein Content Can Help Infants Grow Taller
Wednesday, May 9, 2018 IST
It’s true. Feeding babies with higher protein foods, such as pureed meats can improve their linear growth at an early age.
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Meat, such as pork, can be an important source of much-needed protein in an infant's diet during their transition to solid foods, suggests the finding published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
"Meat, such as pork, provides important micronutrients, is an excellent source of protein and can be an important complementary food for infants who are ready for solid foods,"said lead study author Minghua Tang, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver-Anschutz, in the US.
"Our research suggests introducing higher amounts of protein and introducing meat, such as pork, into the diet at five months could be potentially beneficial for linear growth (length gain)," Tang said
The researchers found the pureed meats promoted a greater rate of growth.
The meat-based diet helped in an increase in growth in length of nearly one inch more, compared to the dairy-fed group of babies at 12 months of age in the study. There was also no increase in the risk of being overweight at the completion of the seven-month study.
While the protein increased, both calories and fat intakes stayed the same between the meat and dairy groups, regardless of protein source.
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