“There can be no food more locally produced, more sustainable or more environmentally friendly than a mother’s breastmilk, the only food required by an infant for the fi rst six months of life. It is a naturally renewable resource, which requires no packaging or transport, results in no wastage and is free.

“
BREASTFEEDING

The known constituents of breastmilk were and are used as a general reference for scientists devising infant formulas. But, to this day, there is no actual ‘formula’ for formula. In fact, the process of producing infant formulas has, since its earliest days, been one of trial and error. Within reason, manufacturers can put anything they like into formula. In fact, the recipe for one product can vary from batch to batch, according to the price and availability of ingredients. While we assume that formula is heavily regulated, no transparency is required of manufacturers: they do not, for example, have to log the specifi c constituents of any batch or brand with any authority. Most commercial formulas are based on cow’s milk. But before a baby can drink cow’s milk in the form of infant formula, it needs to be severely modifi ed. The protein and mineral content must be reduced and the carbohydrate content increased, usually by adding sugar. Milk fat, which is not easily absorbed by the human body, particularly one with an immature digestive system, is removed and substituted with vegetable, animal or mineral fats. Vitamins and trace elements are added, but not always in their most easily digestible form. (This means that the claims that formula is ‘nutritionally complete’ are true, but only in the crudest sense of having had added the full complement of vitamins and minerals to a nutritionally inferior product.) Many formulas are also highly sweetened. While most infant formulas do not contain sugar in the form of sucrose, they can contain high levels of other types of sugar such as lactose (milk sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), glucose (also known as dextrose, a simple sugar found in plants) and maltodextrose (malt sugar). Because of a loophole in the law, these can still be advertised as ‘sucrose free’. Formula may also contain unintentional contaminants introduced during the manufacturing process. Some may contain traces of genetically engineered soya and corn. The bacteria Salmonella and afl atoxins – potent toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, immunosuppressive agents produced by species of the fungus Aspergillus – have regularly been detected in commercial

formulas, as has Enterobacter sakazakii, a devastating foodborne pathogen that can cause sepsis (overwhelming bacterial infection in the bloodstream), meningitis (infl ammation of the lining of the brain) and necrotising enterocolitis (severe infection and infl ammation of the small intestine and colon) in newborn infants. The packaging of infant formulas occasionally gives rise to contamination with broken glass and fragments of metal as well as industrial chemicals such as phthalates and bisphenol A (both carcinogens) and, most recently, the packaging constituent isopropyl thioxanthone (ITX; another suspected carcinogen). Infant formulas may also contain excessive levels of toxic or heavy metals, including aluminium, manganese, cadmium and lead. Soya formulas are of particular concern due to the very high levels of plant-derived oestrogens (phytoestrogens) they contain. In fact, concentrations of phytoestrogens detected in the blood of infants receiving soya formula can be 13,000 to 22,000 times greater than the concentrations of natural oestrogens. Oestrogen in doses above those normally found in the body can cause cancer.

Killing babies For years, it was believed that the risks of illness and death from bottlefeeding were largely confi ned to children in developing countries, where the clean water necessary to make up formula is sometimes scarce and where poverty-stricken mothers may feel obliged to dilute formula to make it stretch further, thus risking waterborne illnesses such as diarrhoea and cholera as well as malnutrition in their babies. But newer data from the West clearly show that babies in otherwise affl uent societies are also falling ill and dying due to an early diet of infant convenience food. Because it is not nutritionally complete, because it does not contain the immune-boosting properties of breastmilk and because it is being consumed by growing babies with vast, ever-changing nutritional needs – and not meeting those needs – the health effects of sucking down formula day after day early in life can be devastating in both the short and long term.

024 THE ECOLOGIST

BREASTMILK vs FORMULA: NO CONTEST Breastmilk is a ‘live’ food that contains

living cells, hormones, active enzymes,

antibodies and at least 400 other unique

components. It is a dynamic substance,

the composition of which changes from

the beginning to the end of the feed

and according to the age and needs of

the baby. Because it also provides active

immunity, every time a baby breastfeeds it

also receives protection from disease.

Compared to this miraculous substance,

the artifi cial milk sold as infant formula

is little more than junk food. It is also the

only manufactured food that humans are

encouraged to consume exclusively for a

period of months, even though we know

that no human body can be expected to

stay healthy and thrive on a steady diet

of processed food.