The US government has issued its first-ever set of detailed dietary guidelines proposed for infants and toddlers.
Informed by a report from the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the plan recommends no added sugar for young children under age two.
It also says infants should be fed only breast milk for their first six months, where possible.
The committee provides a nutritional report twice per decade.
The final recommendations on “making every bite count”, which were released this week by federal health and agriculture agencies, will shape the US government’s official guidelines for the next five years.
According to the experts, more than half of US adults have one or more chronic diseases related to diet. The guidelines state that since the first guidelines were published in 1980, Americans have “fallen far short” and disease rates continue to be a “major public health concern”.
The report traditionally focuses on science-based nutrition for toddlers and older, but this year was expanded to include infants “to reflect the growing body of evidence about appropriate nutrition during the earliest stages of life”.
