Quite right that breastfeeding does not "protect" but rather reduces the
risk.  This is a very complicated issue and a very complicated disease.
It may not be in the cards in our society to get complete protection
against this disease, at least for the moment.  In populations where the
disease is almost unknown, women start to have babies when they are
hardly adolescents yet, and are pregnant or breastfeeding until
menopause.  They also have completely different diets, get a lot more
sunshine, and who knows what else is involved.

We must be quite careful about how we present the benefits of
breastfeeding.  Indeed, I speak of the "risks of artificial feeding"
which does not imply that the risk is zero because of breastfeeding.  In
other words, the risk of diabetes in children may be increased if they
are formula fed, but they are not zero if they are exclusively breastfed
for six months (or did they get a bottle of supplement in the nursery?).

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC