Andrea Peyser seems a bit confused when she accuses the city of being the Gestapo for banning the so-called "free" formula bags. First of all, her comment trivializes Holocaust victims. There is no logical connection between murderers and public health officials trying to improve the health and survival of infants. Secondly, she doesn't understand simple economics. There is no such thing as a free lunch or “gift” from a for profit company. The industry makes huge profit off the so-called “free” samples by including the cost of production, shipping, advertising, etc. in the price of the product that the mother will need to buy once she runs out of the free samples. Because more low- income mothers end up using more formula they disproportionately bear the burden of the costs of this so-called "free" products once they get started and must continue to use it because their milk supply dries up. Then rather than talking to researchers in human nutrition, she consults a psychiatrist. Asking a psychiatrist about research on infant nutrition makes as much sense as asking a podiatrist about research on anti-depressants. As a nutritional epidemiologist, the peer-reviewed articles I have read on the risks of not breastfeeding would fill more than a filing cabinet. Finally, to accuse researchers of making up data is simply slander unless you can document it. The only documented case of data fabrication in the field of infant nutrition that I know about was a researcher named Chandra in Canada who bilked the formula industry out of huge amounts of research money and was finally caught by a graduate student who noticed that it was not physically possible for anyone to have collected data on the number of infants he claimed to have observed in his research. Really, the propaganda machine here is not the city, but those who have convinced us of the illogical statement that breastfeeding is better, but formula is just as good. If one thing is better, the other is not as good. And what research is there that supports Andrea Peyser's claim that breastfeeding causes suicide? Oh please, get a grip and check your facts before scaring women half to death that they will suicide if they breastfeed. Talk about a guilt trip! Susan E. Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html Mail all commands to [log in to unmask] To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask]) To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]