Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSBaby formula as good as breast milk, claims study
Breast milk may not be best for newborn children after all, according to a Norwegian study which claims baby formula is just as beneficial.
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Research leader Professor Sven Carlsen has claimed: “Baby formula is as good as breast milk.”
By reviewing more than 50 international studies on the relationship between health and breastfeeding, the team found that most concluded the more children had breastmilk, the healthier they become.
Prof Carlsen said this was superficially correct but that breastfeeding itself was not responsible for improving health. Rather, it is the hormone balance in a woman’s womb before she gives birth which affects her ability to express milk.
The research claims the association between healthy children and breastmilk is misleading and the only genuine benefit is “a small IQ advantage”, which has not yet been properly confirmed.
Prof Carlsen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, said: “There are very few studies that have examined the underlying controls on breastfeeding ability.”
The research is published in the January edition of the journal Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologia Scandinavica.
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Readers' comments (1)
Tony Wright | 7-Jan-2010 11:45 am
Absolute criminally insane BS. Tens of millions of years of unimaginably complex and extremely precise molecular design versus some junior chemistry set junk to build the most advanced neural system we know. In fairness the article does identify a major cause of the general idiocy that goes for science and human behaviour generally. The hormone regime that once gave us the most incredible brain and was essential for its normal development has gone to hell. To find out exactly why check out this piece on the Beckley foundations new web site and make up your own mind for a change http://www.brainwaving.com/2009/11/17/377/
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