Here is a version of the antioxidant story that gives more than a
superficial review (with scare tactics).  It give numbers.  And the
numbers say that old stale frozen (okay, my exaggeration) BM still have
more antioxidants than that other stuff.

www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=5d1cff05-07b0-45e0-8103-31c2f8307601

HEALTH
Back to Health Main
Freezing, refrigerating breast milk lowers its antioxidant content:
study
  
Lorrayne Anthony 
Canadian Press 


October 22, 2004


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TORONTO (CP) - Refrigerating or freezing expressed breast milk, a
practice many women use when returning to the workforce after maternity
leave, lowers its antioxidant content, a new study has found. 

"We find fresh breast milk contains more antioxidants than refrigerated
breast milk or frozen breast milk or formula," said Thomas Hegyi of the
department of pediatrics at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New
Jersey. He is one of the authors of the study to be published Saturday
in the Fetal and Neonatal edition of the journal Archives of Disease in
Childhood. 

Antioxidants prevent damage caused by free radicals and arm babies'
immune systems to fight off infection. Quoting:

"Fresh breast milk had the highest antioxidant capacity - 1.66, on the
researchers' scale. Next was breast milk that had been refrigerated for
two days (1.58), followed by breast milk that had been refrigerated for
a week (1.48), frozen for two days (1.45) and frozen for a week (1.34). 

Freshly made formula had an antioxidant capacity of 1.07. The number
fluctuated slightly over the various cooling treatments, always
remaining lower than that of breast milk that had been frozen for a
week."


Judith

Judith Hayman, RN, IBCLC, BSc, BScN
Public Health Nurse & Lactation Consultant

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