Hullo Chris - I don't know much about nutrition and can't help with
your questions and would like to add to the list....  Any of the
dieticians care to come in on this please?

I attended a symposium on Friday.  One of the topics was entitled
"Breast is Best - The Nutritional Facts".  The speaker proceeded to
talk mostly about her own conversion to wholefood eating (there
seems to be a trend here towards the rawfood diet that doesn't mix
protein and carbohydrate) and the message that I heard was that
"Breast is only Best if the mother is eating wholefoods in the
correct proportions", otherwise the milk will be deficient.  The
speaker was concerned that women eating a "modern, Western" diet,
with processed food, additives, preservatives, colourants and
not enough fresh fruit and veg., are not producing
breastmilk that is good enough for their babies.  Some of the
concerns raised which I have not heard before, include:

1. The quality of the breastmilk diminishes with each successive
pregnancy.
2. The volume of breastmilk is affected by the mother's sugar levels.
3. There is seasonal variation in fat content (this one seems to
make sense to me, particularly in very cold countries).

Unfortunately the next speaker was hurried on and there were no
questions.  For your information, the speaker is in charge of a
maternity unit, as far as I know she doesn't rep. for any company.
Before contacting her to query the above, I'd like to collect more
information and would be interested in your comments.  Have you heard
these concerns before?

Thank you, Lynn.

(P.S. I have no problem with eating lots of fruit and vegetables -
I'm worried that moms may restrict their total intake of nutrients
with rawfood diets).
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Lynn Moony
Johannesburg, South Africa
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