The study on cariogenicity of various fluids as tested on desalivated rats
is being dispersed widely, more widely than say, the story on the
evisceration of the Ad Council campaign to increase BF rates in the US last
year.
There was a sentence quoted in one of the LN posts about this article about
how breastmilk was slightly more cariogenic than cow's milk, again IN
DESALIVATED RATS.  In the rewrite of the findings on one press service, this
turns into "Cow Milk Beats Breast Milk For Healthy Teeth, Study Says".  

This is a leap from what was in the study.  That one liquid is demonstrably
more cariogenic than another in experimental conditions quite different from
what is going on in a breastfed baby's mouth, doesn't tell us anything at
all about which food builds healthier teeth in vivo.  

I don't have great experience with journalistic treatment of research in the
mass media, and this example fits well into the pattern I am used to seeing.
There are some notable and admirable exceptions, writers who manage to
understand what the research says and present it in a way so that others may
understand it as well.  Such writers are jewels and I can think of several
who are active on this list.  

The kindest thing one can say about the writer of this item is that they
missed the point.  How unfortunate, then, that they compounded their own
misunderstanding by writing a flawed news item about what might be fine
research about cariogenicity of various liquids, but is certainly not
research about whether cow's milk or breastmilk builds the healthiest teeth.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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