I've been watching with great interest the discussion of Karleen's article
and what we are learning about the language we use about infant feeding.

Long interested in food security issues, I started participating in the
local food security council last year.  The purpose of such councils is to
advance the cause of reliable availability of fresh food to all local
residents.  Many food security activists find author/activist Michael
Pollan's exposition of "food" informative and inspiring (see
http://michaelpollan.com/books/in-defense-of-food/).

Babies do not experience the "Omnivore's Dilemma" Pollan so eloquently
articulated in his bestseller, because they are not omnivores with choices
to make.  They are completely dependent and do not have the anatomy or
physiology to process a variety of foods.  Lactnetters know this in their
bones and that is why we persevere.  It will certainly take some
perseverance to get many food security activists to buy into the urgency of
justice in infant feeding.  People who call Froot Loops "edible foodlike
substances" as Pollan does may nevertheless struggle with owning the
responsibility to see that babies get fresh food.

But we will persevere, and I invite us to share the language that will
bring it home.  Certainly, "junk" food is not a helpful term, and correctly
refers to foods that make no pretense of being something to live on but are
presented as treats (while being consumed in my community in quantities
that overwhelm human metabolism).  I have been using the term "processed
food", and have been emphasizing that HUMAN MILK IS THE INFANT'S ONLY
ALTERNATIVE TO PROCESSED FOOD.  So far, folks in the food security council
are pleased to cheer me on in my IBCLC/LLL enclave but have not taken me up
on how to fully integrate infant food security with their other efforts.  I
am grateful that the U. S. Surgeon General's Call to Action is casting
breastfeeding support as a national health care priority.  I am glad that
papers such as
http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/actionguides/Health_Care_Leaders_in_Action.pdfare
coming out to alert health care providers to how their treatment of
mothers at crucial times affects the nutrition of children.  But I think we
will need to get beyond health care language to justice language to get as
much traction as necessary outside the health care community.

Ruth

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