Beautiful, Susan!
Allow me to rephrase some parts of your last paragraph:
When we have more than 3 out of 5 infants younger than six months who are
receiving ANIMAL-MILK SUBSTITUTES --- and almost 80% of infants younger than
six months who are partially or fully FORMULA FED in the areas of the world
with the highest infant mortality rates --- and the FORMULA FEEDING
increases many infectious and chronic diseases --- and the FORMULA FEEDING
contributes to environmental degradation in many ways --- and the FORMULA
FEEDING contributes to psychological detachment as well --- we really have a
global crisis that deserves constant attention.
Lack of breastfeeding IS formula feeding. Or worse.
Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC
Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre, Ltd.
6540 Cedarview Ct, Dayton OH 45459
ph 937-438-9458 / fax 937-438-3228
www.BFLRC.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Burger [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 11:41 AM
Subject: Re: The ignorance of an idea, not a person
Dear all:
I want to make a clear statement on the fact that I consider certain ideas
ignorant and
not necessarily people. I have held many ideas which I have realized with
more insight
were misguided or even ignorant. With deeper reflection, those ideas have
been revised
or abandoned.
The specific "idea" that I find ignorant is that a single intervention can
conquer all the
health problems in developing area of the world. In this regard, I do find
that the Bill
Gates foundation follows that pattern of looking at one "magic bullet"
intervention in
isolation, rather than the combination of interventions that would improve
the health
situation. Just as you cannot simply implement a water and sanitation
intervention and
eliminate all disease transmission because malaria is transmitted via blood
and insect,
HIV via body fluids including blood, and measles is transmitted via droplet
spread --- you
cannot conquer all the world's health problems with a multivitamin
supplement either. So,
the substitution of ONE "magic bullet" intervention for another "SINGLE"
long-term
intervention that does not address a huge chunk of transmissions routes is
the idea that I
find ignorant.
Nevertheless, while you are building a gardening program in an area that has
so much
drought and environmental degradation that even the goats are vitamin A
deficient, you
can enable many more children to survive until that gardening program, along
with
programs to assist women to develop acceptable, palatable recipes for those
new foods,
and to ensure that the kids, not the men are eating some of those foods.
Even though I
am definitely on the side of food being the answer and have never taken a
nutritional
supplement myself, not even as a child --- there are circumstances I've seen
specific
supplements stave off death long enough to arrive at a longer term solution.
If there are
simply no green plants available to eat, you will not find a source of
beta-carotene to
convert to retinol. Furthermore, human milk remains a good source of
retinol and beta-
carotene even in deficient conditions and can mitigate the effects of
deficiency during the
first six months of exclusive breastfeeding.
Like the New York Times Sunday magazine article that exposed the problems
caused by
the "Nutrification of Foods" that has led some in search of the "magic
nutrient' that will
cause them to live forever or be slim or beautiful or the "bad food" that if
were
eliminated from the diet would produce the same result ---- it is clear that
you must look
at the bigger picture of interactions. The effects of single nutrients
cannot be really
evaluated in isolation from food and meals and even the overall health of
the person
eating those foods. The "magic bullet" bullet approach to evaluating
interventions in
developing areas of the world have resulted in a competitive process for
funding rather
than a process of looking far more carefully about which interventions truly
complement
each other and result in synergistic improvements in health. What is not as
commonly
known even in nutrition circles is that there is a branch of epidemiology
that goes well
beyond a linear approach and this branch validates much of what careful
observers can
often detect before the number crunchers --- and that is looking at effect
modification.
Personally, I think the qualitative observational approach discovers these
relationships far
faster than the quantitative approach.
I also have problems with the "dumping" of "surplus" foods during famine
situations
because these do not resolve the long term problems. Yet, in the face of
many who are
dying, I would not deny food to those who need it. I would work harder to
put into place
those programs that would prevent the famines from ocurring and more locally
available
resources for emergency conditions that cannot always be anticipated.
Some topics such as immunizations and abortion are topics about which some
of us have
such deeply held convictions based on our personal experiences and beliefs
that we may
never agree.
What we CAN agree about is that breastfeeding is a central intervention to a
huge array
of unnecessary health problems in developed and developing countries alike.
It is a sad
state of affairs that breastfeeding has BECOME an intervention and not the
norm. When
we have less than two of five infants younger than six months who are
exclusively
breastfed --- and slightly more than one out of five infants younger than
six months who
are exclusively breastfed in the areas of the world with the highest infant
mortality rates
--- and the lack of breastfeeding increases many infectious and chronic
diseases --- and
the lack of breastfeeding contributes to environmental degradation in many
ways --- and
the lack of breastfeeding contributes to psychological detachment as well
--- we really
have a global crisis that deserves constant attention.
Best, Susan Burger
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