<<Katherine, I'm not familiar with algal DHA.  >>

I was generally referring to the Martek genetically engineered stuff
that's oft the topic of discussion on lactnet

When Stoll (Harvard)  used Neuromins DHA in one of his trials dealing
with bipolar, it increased mania.  When fish oil was used basically in
it's 'normal' ratio (but concentrated), the results were nothing short
of astounding.   One could get the cite by searching Stoll bipolar fish
oil.   His book is really amazing.




<<but I still like to think that children and adults can eat a complete
diet through thoughtful meal planning and shopping vs.
supplementation. >>

I used to believe that.  After spending a good long chunk of time
working with a nutritionist, I now believe that unless I do my own
farming (or buy from local farms) and pay careful attention to soil
nutrient levels,  and generalliy eat what we would have eaten in an
evolutionary diet (grassfed/free range animals), nuts/seeds,  wild
plants, wild fruits that modern nutrition, no  matter how carefully
planned, will fall short in many areas.   One example is the selenium
deficiency in soil here in the SE.   Other issues are zinc and mag
difficiencies in other areas.   Yet another problem is the grain feeding
of animals that increases the fat content of the animal and changes the
all important *ratios* of various fats and fatty acids.   The grain
feeding of animals has dramatically impacted us.

Refrigeration has also dramatically changed things.  While I think we
can all agree that we love our refrigerators, b/c of them, we no longer
have to 'preserve' food by fermenting it.    As we've moved away from
fermented foods as a common item in our diet, we loose a lot of vitamin
K (not to mention moving away from lots and lots of veggies).  But the
vitamin K thing is so significant b/c it strongly impacts pregnant women
and breastfeeding babies esp in the first few days (for the babies).
For the moms, K deficiency  contributes likely contributes to the very
real risk of osteoporosis.

<< I also know many vegetarians who would object to fish oil.>>

So do I.  I used to be one of them.  I ate a very healthy veg diet.
Unfortunately humans didn't seem to evolve as grain and bean eating
vegetarians.

I paid a high price over the long term.  While there were definitely
benefits, the risks to me and my kids were real.

I wish it were not so......ethically, i'm still so there......physically
and psychologically, my kids and i do much better with animal protein.
Dramatically so.

Anyhoo,  what does this have to do with breastfeeding?  Imo, our milk,
no matter how poor our diets, is always the best thing for our
babies....but let's assume *all* babies in the world are getting
breastmilk.      If that were the case, then we could actually have an
open discussion about the *fact* that our milk is a reflection of what
we eat.  Our bodies can only do so much compensating before our
breastfed babies pay the price between our diet being optimal and our
diet basically providing just enough cals for us to live, but not much
else.

katherine in atl

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