Last year at a conference on nutrition at A&M, one of the speakers was
talking about the importance of long-chain PUFAs in brain and eye
development, and about how breast milk had lots of them, and formula had
none.  And he talked a little about how some of the formula companies were
trying to figure out how to get these fatty acids into their formula (he
mentioned grinding up lamb brains at one point - yuck - imagine the ad "Our
formula contains lamb brains!").  He then talked about the research showing
lower IQ scores in formula-fed babies and linked it to the lack of these
essential fatty acids.  And one of the women in the audience asked, very
concernedly, what foods were a good source of these fatty acids, and he (the
speaker) said, "Well, cod liver oil is a good source."  And the woman had
the b----s to ask "Can I put cod liver oil in the baby's bottle?"  The
audience roared, and the speaker said "Well, you *can*, but I seriously
doubt the baby will drink it that way."  I'm not sure the woman ever
understood that there basically was no way to correct this deficit in her
child's nutrition.


Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
e-mail to [log in to unmask]