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Discover expert-backed insights on fitness, nutrition, sleep, and healthy aging to help you feel your best—every day, at every stage of life.

More parents are beginning to scrutinize the foods they give their children early in life, and a new study suggests they're right to do so.

A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin surveyed 21 grocery stores across Austin, Texas, and found that more than 80% of available toddler foods were ultra-processed.

Here's what you should know about the study and what it means for toddler health in the United States.

Two research scientists at the University of Texas at Austin visited 21 grocery stores around Austin, gathering photographs of 2,783 products billed as suitable for children ages 6 to 36 months.

They found that 81% of the products were ultra-processed, according to criteria outlined in the Nova Food Classification System.

The right approach: How to shop healthier at the grocery store

The framework splits foods into four groups – unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and ultra-processed foods – depending on the "nature, extent and purposes of the industrial processes they undergo" before winding up on someone's kitchen table.