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From:
Jill Dye <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 12 Mar 1998 10:02:15 +0000
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There may be some cultural issues here that I need to clarify.

In Britain, pregnant women are not supplemented with anything except iron
and folic acid because nutritionist and dietitians think it important
that vitamins and minerals be got through food. (They think breastfeeding
women should all take extra vitamins but that is another issue.)  The
need for extra iron is being questioned.  If American women are still
given large doses of prenatal vitamins then a radical change in their
diets during pregnancy may not have as much impact.  The mothers in
Harry's study are Irish, like England a big dairy producer, and a major
part of the diet is dairy.  These mothers were REDUCING the amount of
dairy foods eaten.  Harry didn't ask them if they adjusted their diets to
take account of things like calcium, but I would suspect that they
didn't.  Gay Palmer (nutritionist, author Politics of Breastfeeding) once
told me that if there is a genuine deficiency in vitamins and minerals
the body will start to utilise those available much more effeciently, but
there is a period of adjustment.  If that took place at a critical time
during pregnancy, perhaps during enamal formation, it might lead to
suseptible teeth.  Health professionals here promote milk as essential
(an English pint a day--20 fluid oz) because there are not any other
major sources of calcium in the British diet, it is so easy to get and
Britain and Ireland have a surplus of milk.  Personally I think milk is a
useful food, but certainly not essential.

The majority of the world's population that do not consume milk are
getting their calcium needs from some other source and would not be
changing their normal diets during pregnancy.

Jill Dye, LLLleader, Great Britain
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