Barbara Wilson-Clay writes that "...it is disheartening to then get a copy of the document "Healthier US: The President's Health and Fitness Initiative" and find not one word in it about infant feeding practices and the contribution of formula feeding to obesity and a host of other preventable diseases. I know this is no comfort at all, but we had a lecture by a researcher who is affiliated with a project about obesity in children this week. She lectured on another topic, but I asked her what the project is doing with regard to breastfeeding as part of the strategy to prevent childhood obesity. This is a Swedish mother of three who is of at least average intelligence and heavily involved in the area of public health. Her answer? "Oh yes, we have a pediatrician who is always going on about that, but I don't believe it really makes any difference. I think lifestyle changes later on in childhood are the way to go." To make the irony complete, her lecture was on 'the reasons diabetic adolescents start smoking' and she gave example upon astounding example of how these young people behave as though the well-documented information on the risks of smoking if one has diabetes simply does not exist, which she finds shocking. Sometimes 'sheesh' just doesn't even begin to cover it. Rachel Myr *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html