> Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 08:00:25 -0400
> From: Gloria <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Looking for...
>
> Hello all,
>
> I was hoping that someone on the list will know what I am looking
> for. Many years ago, I read something--probably not more than a
> paragraph long that started out something like..."Imagine a substance
> that can.....it goes on talking about the amazing properties of this
> substance and ends with the fact that it already exists---breastmilk.
>
> Thanks.
> Gloria Thai, Va
>
Gloria,
I think that the quote you are looking for is the opening of
Gabrielle Palmer's book, "The Politics of Breastfeeding," Pandora
Press, 1988, (on page 19 in my 1993 edition):
"If a multinational company developed a product that was a
nutritionally balanced and delicious food, a wonder drug that both
prevented and treated disease, cost almost nothing to produce and
could be delivered in quantities controlled by the consumers' needs,
the very announcement of their find would send their shares rocketing
to the top of the stock market. The scientists who developed the
product would win prizes and the wealth and influence of everyone
involved would increase dramatically. Women have been producing such
a miraculous substance, breastmilk, since the beginning of human
existence, yet they form the half of the world's people who are the
least wealthy and the least powerful....."
A very similar statement opens an article by Barbara Quick in the
January/February 1997 issue of "Ms." magazine, Volume VII, number 4,
page 32. The title is, "Breast Milk: It Does a Body Good":
"If a medicine were to be developed that could prevent the deaths of
a million or more children per year, greatly reduce childhood illness
and disease, produce healthier and perhaps even smarter adults, and,
in its administration, contribute to preventing ovarian and pre-
menopausal breast cancer and osteoporosis in women, it would
certainly be hailed as the greatest miracle in the history of medical
science. If, furthermore, this medicine had no ill side effects, and
its production had absolutely no adverse environmental impact, we
would scarcely be able to believe our good fortune as a species.
Now, what if the fantasy were to be extended a bit, so that we
imagine this miracle substance to be not only all of the above, but
also free of charge? In other words, no one stands to profit
economically from its production, promotion, or distribution. In
fact, the only adverse impact at all would be an economic one on a
billion-dollar multinational industry built upon a competing but
clearly inferior product. Would the makers of that lesser product
raise their hands in thanks for the blessing to humankind and close
up shop? Would the medical establishment rise in a collective cheer
at the prospect of fewer sick people needing its services?
It is unnecessary to venture into the realm of fantasy to find the
answers to these questions, as the miracle substance - breast milk -
already exists, although it is only in the last 25 years or so that
the full range of its medicinal properties has begun to be understood
and recognized by the worldwide scientific community...."
Anne Altshuler, RN, MS, IBCLC, LLL Leader in Madison, WI
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