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Nestlé Milk nurses in South Africa, c. 1950. 

Nestlé Milk nurses in South Africa, c. 1950. 

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As breast-milk substitutes became increasingly sophisticated and heavily marketed in the mid-twentieth century, bottle-feeding became regarded worldwide as safe, convenient, normal and even preferable to breastfeeding. From 1975, research conducted in the developing world, particularly Gambia, began to converge with work on immunology and child psy...

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... This declaration is scientifically irresponsible because it lacks any valid empirical support and is contradicted by decades of 'real-world' evidence. For example, by the late 1950s, most infants in industrialized nations were reared on infant formula: a completely synthetic, ultra-processed beverage with 'added' fat, 'added' salt, and $40% of calories derived from the 'added' sugars lactose, sucrose, glucose, fructose, and/or corn syrup (Fomon 2001;Crowther, Reynolds, and Tansey 2009;Stevens, Patrick, and Pickler 2009;Archer 2018aArcher , 2018c). ...
... Furthermore, the use of infant formula in Japan and Norway reached $60-70% by the 1970s (Crowther, Reynolds, and Tansey 2009;Inoue et al. 2012) while the prevalence of obesity and T2DM in those populations continues to remain among the lowest in industrialized nations (OECD 2017). Given these facts, we contend that the consumption of 'added' sugars by infants and children is innocuous. ...
Article
Sugar, tobacco, and alcohol have been demonized since the seventeenth century. Yet unlike tobacco and alcohol, there is indisputable scientific evidence that dietary sugars were essential for human evolution and are essential for human health and development. Therefore, the purpose of this analytic review and commentary is to demonstrate that anti-sugar rhetoric is divorced from established scientific facts and has led to politically expedient but ill-informed policies reminiscent of those enacted about alcohol a century ago in the United States. Herein, we present a large body of interdisciplinary research to illuminate several misconceptions, falsehoods, and facts about dietary sugars. We argue that anti-sugar policies and recommendations are not merely unscientific but are regressive and unjust because they harm the most vulnerable members of our society while providing no personal or public health benefits.
Article
You and Your Baby was a pregnancy advice booklet, produced by the British Medical Association (BMA) from 1957–1987. This booklet was provided to expectant mothers in the UK, free of charge, and offered authoritative information on pregnancy, childbirth and caring for infants. Reprinted each year, You and Your Baby captured contemporary maternity policy and advice. But, in addition to the typical information that you might expect about mother and baby health, You and Your Baby advised readers on matters such as maintaining their appearance, marital relations and domestic duties. In this way, it advocated a specific vision of motherhood, with responsibilities to the home and husband. Further to these duties, this article will focus on the balance of responsibilities between pregnant women and their doctors, and how attitudes to trust and authority developed over time. The BMA publication repeatedly warned readers against listening to ‘old wives’ tales’, instead emphasising the importance of accepting (and not questioning) professional medical guidance. Following the thalidomide scandal, however, women were made partially responsible for doctors' professional integrity; women were advised to avoid asking their doctors to prescribe medication that may later prove to be harmful, shifting the responsibility from the healthcare practitioner to the mother. This created an uncomfortable dissonance between the publication’s attempts to establish and reinforce medical authority, and yet shift professional responsibility. The booklet series, therefore, posed women as responsible for their doctors, as well as their babies. In summary, this article presents a case study of the You and Your Baby BMA booklet, examining developing healthcare messaging around maternal behaviour and responsibility. It draws attention to supposed responsibilities to the home, husband and doctor and how those responsibilities changed over 30 years.