> Date:    Wed, 14 May 2008 08:00:25 -0400
> From:    Gloria <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Looking for...
>
> Hello all,
>
> I was hoping that someone on the list will know what I am looking
> for.  Many years ago, I read something--probably not more than a
> paragraph long that started out something like..."Imagine a substance
> that can.....it goes on talking about the amazing properties of this
> substance and ends with the fact that it already exists---breastmilk.
>
> Thanks.
> Gloria Thai, Va
>

Gloria,

I think that the quote you are looking for is the opening of  
Gabrielle Palmer's book, "The Politics of Breastfeeding," Pandora  
Press, 1988, (on page 19 in my 1993 edition):

"If a multinational company developed a product that was a  
nutritionally balanced and delicious food, a wonder drug that both  
prevented and treated disease, cost almost nothing to produce and  
could be delivered in quantities controlled by the consumers' needs,  
the very announcement of their find would send their shares rocketing  
to the top of the stock market.  The scientists who developed the  
product would win prizes and the wealth and influence of everyone  
involved would increase dramatically.  Women have been producing such  
a miraculous substance, breastmilk, since the beginning of human  
existence, yet they form the half of the world's people who are the  
least wealthy and the least powerful....."

A very similar statement opens an article by Barbara Quick in the  
January/February 1997 issue of "Ms." magazine, Volume VII, number 4,  
page 32.  The title is, "Breast Milk: It Does a Body Good":

"If a medicine were to be developed that could prevent the deaths of  
a million or more children per year, greatly reduce childhood illness  
and disease, produce healthier and perhaps even smarter adults, and,  
in its administration, contribute to preventing ovarian and pre- 
menopausal breast cancer and osteoporosis in women, it would  
certainly be hailed as the greatest miracle in the history of medical  
science.  If, furthermore, this medicine had no ill side effects, and  
its production had absolutely no adverse environmental impact, we  
would scarcely be able to believe our good fortune as a species.   
Now, what if the fantasy were to be extended a bit, so that we  
imagine this miracle substance to be not only all of the above, but  
also free of charge?  In other words, no one stands to profit  
economically from its production, promotion, or distribution.  In  
fact, the only adverse impact at all would be an economic one on a  
billion-dollar multinational industry built upon a competing but  
clearly inferior product.  Would the makers of that lesser product  
raise their hands in thanks for the blessing to humankind and close  
up shop?  Would the medical establishment rise in a collective cheer  
at the prospect of fewer sick people needing its services?
	It is unnecessary to venture into the realm of fantasy to find the  
answers to these questions, as the miracle substance - breast milk -  
already exists, although it is only in the last 25 years or so that  
the full range of its medicinal properties has begun to be understood  
and recognized by the worldwide scientific community...."


Anne Altshuler, RN, MS, IBCLC, LLL Leader in Madison, WI
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