> forumla rep coming tomorrow to talk to staff about DHA/ARA.
> 
> if you have an article, or any sort of written concise response, that I could
> copy and place out on the table and put in the 160 staff mailboxes, please
> email to me.
A really quick response on this matter (because I cant resist, although I'm
avoiding all those other things I SHOULD be doing!!).
DHA is important to neural development of the infant - No doubt about it!
However DHA comprises only 0.2% of fatty acids in breastmilk. Most fatty
acids in milk - we have no idea about their function in relation to infant
development. However we do know total fat (in breast milk) tends to remain
the same (within the variability between women) - and although you can
change the concentration of long chain fatty acids in milk by changes in
diet -  when you do so, it changes the concentration of a whole pile of the
other fatty acids (they are all intricately linked). So when you add heaps
of DHA to formula you may be effecting the concentration of the other fatty
acids present (some will go up and some will go down). As we don¹t know the
importance or relevance of so many of the fatty acids we don¹t know what
effect changing the con'n (by adding heaps of DHA to formula) will do to
other potentially very important components (but then this is the essence of
formula - just a recipe of adding together components we know are important,
while everything else we don¹t know about, or cant mimic, is left out - with
no consideration of the importance of the dynamics of a living fluid).
Also in adding to formula with tablets/capsules of DHA when making the
formula up there is, I believe, real miscibility (mixing) problems because
of the oily nature of the substance.

Probably not too helpful for what you may want but these things are
interesting

Cathy Fetherston
Perth, Western Australia

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