What is a low-fat diet?
Fat has never been more confusing for parents and child-care providers. Why the concern about fat? Heart disease can start in childhood. Children with high blood cholesterol are likely to grow into adults with high cholesterol. In addition, eating a lot of fat makes it easier for children to become too fat. This can contribute to health problems of various kinds. Low-fat is not for babies You may have heard that adults should get just 30% of calories from fat. That is considered a moderate to low fat diet and is great for adults and older children. But in breastmilk (and in most infant formulas), 50% of the calories are from fat. Babies need all that fat for brain development and for their amazing growth in their first years. Gram for gram, fat has more than twice the calories of carbohydrate or protein. This means breast milk or formula packs a lot of calories into a small volume so babies, with their small stomachs, can consume enough calories to grow like crazy. As babies progress w
