European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 01, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 20 the stars and stripes thursday september 1,1977 by Brian Sullivan associated pressm ilk the perfect food the stuff that millions of mothers urge their kids to drink because it will make them Strong tall and healthy could there possibly be anything wrong with it definitely argues or. Frank a. Oski a paediatrician and department head at new York state University. And he s set out to prove his Case in a Book starkly entitled Don t drink your milk. In t it time he asks for the weaning of Ameri Ca milk cow s milk that is is not natural Oski con tends except for calves. For humans especially infants and children cow s milk is linked with Iron deficiency anaemia is a cause of cramps vomiting and diarrhoea can cause allergic reactions like nasal congestion asthma skin rash Chest infections including bronchitis and May play a role in the origin of arteriosclerosis and heart attacks Oski says. His Book published by Wyden books was written with reporter John d. Bell. It includes a discussion of the poli tics of the milk Industry but its Mam focus is the medical aspect. I think this is a subject the bad parts about milk that should be brought the the attention of the Public Oski said in an interview. The Public is bombarded with the Good things abort milk continuously so that it s part of the collective unconscious. When i see children All the time who Are affected badly by milk Well somebody has to stand up and say hey wait a minute " taking allergic reactions to milk As an example Oski says that 25 per cent of children who Are fed cow milk before the age of six months will develop one or More allergies. For those Given cow milk before 1 year of age he says 8 to 10 per cent develop allergies. A spokesman for the National Dairy Council Robert Kowalski said yes milk causes allergies there s no question about  but he added that the majority of paediatricians place the estimate at 1 to 2 per cent and that the allergy is outgrown at age 2. It s unfortunate that or. Oski has chosen to denounce milk drinking at a time when a number of nutrition surveys have demonstrated that Many american diets Are Low on Ribo Flavio Vitamin a and Calcium nutrients abundant a milk and other Dairy foods Kowalski said. Most health authorities still recommend eating balanced diets with foods from four Basic food groups milk meat fruits and vegetables and  another anti milk Point made by Oski in his Book is that the majority of the people in the world Are lactose intolerant lactose is the sugar in milk. When the lactose in milk is consumed it must be broken Down by the enzyme Lactase before it can be absorbed from the intestinal tract into the blood Stream. But if the amount of lactose exceeds the capacity of the enzyme to break it Down the result in the intestine is a sense of bloating Gas cramps and perhaps a watery diarrhoea. Or. Oski said a study at Johns Hopkins school of medi Cine showed that 15 per cent of All Whites and 70 per cent of All Blacks tested were unable to digest lactose. Sur Veys of the world populations were begun and we now know that far More people Are unable to digest lactose than Are Able to digest it he writes. The Dairy Council s Kowalski counters that no other researchers have come up with the same re sults As those in the Hopkins study. And he contends that checks with health department officials and others involved in providing milk for Blacks and others held to be lactose intolerant failed to produce such evidence. However Oski recommends against giving any infant any cow milk. Modern living ideally he writes the infant should be exclusively fed human milk for the first year of life. If this is not pos sible or desirable then the infant should be fed a com Mercial formula for the first year. The infant should never receive cow milk in an unmodified form. After the first year of life the child requires no milk of any Type. The child like us adults can thrive without cow milk Ever crossing his  or. Oski also says it is possible for the infant and child to get enough Calcium for the Teeth and Bones from other foods such As spinach sardines and other fish. One helping of spinach contains As much Calcium As one Glass of  Yogurt Oski notes can be made from either whole or skim milk Bat is better from skim. The bacterial culture used to ferment the skim milk does the Job of breaking Down the lactose into simple sugars glucose and galactose which can then be digested even by a person who is lactose intolerant. The removal of the fat also eliminates another of the disadvantages of whole milk or. Oski writes. The Cul Turing and incubation process is believed to modify the protein and reduce its chances of producing allergic symptoms. Yogurt and not whole milk May be closer to a perfect food in t that just what your grandmother told you 1 a. By Mary Neth staff writer an formula Hurt babies As Well As help them there Are those who believe that under certain circumstances particularly in under developed countries giving the baby a bottle can almost be signing his or her death notice. Dorothy Foegen is one of them. Those powdered milk formulas Are one thing we never should have been Al Lowed to Export she says. Foegen head of the Frankfurt chapter of the la leche league a group formed in the . To promote breast feeding of babies was speaking of the introduction from highly industrialized countries such As the . Of bottled milk formulas to under developed or so called third world countries. Promotion of bottle feeding in such countries can Lead to real tragedy malnutrition illness  asks How a Mother who has no Supply of clean water no refrigeration Little Money and who can t read and has never been instructed about germs or infections can be expected to prepare properly mixed sterilized formula for an infant. Foegen is not alone in her condemnation of the promo Tion of bottle feeding in third world countries. A report made at the International paediatric association seminar at Monteux Switzerland noted the commercial penetration promotion of infant formulas of developing countries represents the greatest imaginable threat to the health and Well being of millions of  that Mother s milk is a food by far Superior to an imitative formula is Seldom disputed. According to studies in the developing countries where the elite practice artificial feeding and the poor continue with breast feeding the rate of growth of the breast fed infant even with the disadvantages of poor environment and Lack of sanitation is better than the rate of growth of the elite infant fed on baby foods and formula during the first three months of , then do mothers in poor circumstances attempt to buy commercial baby formula in an article for the world health organization or. Adele Omolola professor of nutrition at the University of Ibadan Nigeria reports that the mothers bombarded by commercials promoting artificial feeding believe that by doing so they will be giving their babies the Best. He cites the Case of a baby brought to him weighing just 5 /2 pounds at two months virtually skin and Bones by a Village Mother who had switched to bottles and then not had enough Money to buy the full formula. She had heard Over the radio that powdered milk was the Best food for infants. She had Learned that educated and upper class women used bottles. She had seen posters and advertisements at health centers and on town Bill boards showing big bouncing babies being fed with bottles. She too wanted the Best for her child. Thus though the child was growing Well she forced her poor husband to spend All his Money on a  Alan Berg a nutrition planner with the world Bank has seen similar cases. He writes that More Public information and in some instances government regulation Are urgently needed to fight the High powered advertising of infant formulas which might be called anti nutrition education. For instance in latin America Many mothers Are persuaded by Clever advertising to feed their infants cheap cornstarch mixtures that look like  he also notes that the economic implications Are Clear. A child who is nursed through the first six months of life receives about 396 quarts of breast milk. To replace this with the nutritional equivalent in cow s milk about 461 quarts would take about $65 out of the family income which in Many countries is Only a few Hundred dollars per year. A labourer in Uganda May need to spend As much As 33 per cent of his daily wage for baby s milk in Chile 20 per cent in Tanzania 50 per cent. For packaged dried milk formulas which Are rapidly becoming More popular in the food stalls of local bazaars the Cost would be close to $140. These costs do not include waste or diversion to other members of the family or the expense of bottles artificial nipples cooking utensils refrigeration fuel and perhaps most important medical care which is frequently 10 times greater than for breast fed , according to Foegen although there has been a resurgence of interest in breast feeding in the United states among mainly the College educated and Well to do babies throughout the world Are being fed More and More by artificial formulas these Days. Berg for example writes that 20 years ago 95 per cent of chilean mothers breast fed their children beyond the first year by 1969 Only six per cent did so and Only 20 per cent of the babies were nursed for As Long As two months. In Kenya he Points out that the estimated $11.5 Mil lion annual needed to buy formula for bottle babies equals two thirds of the National health budget or one fifth of the average annual economic Aid. In any Case Foegen and her group Are among the women of the industrialized world fighting to bring maternal nursing of babies Back in Vogue. Foegen says the be leche movement As of this Pas june there were 3,435 groups in 42 countries is aimed at better  american groups in Europe made up of wives of military men she says can be of particularly Benefit Soyoung mothers. During the meetings ideas Are exchanged not Only on infant feeding but All aspects of child care. Here the girls Are isolated. There is no Mother or older sister to turn to. Talking things Over with other women who have had experience rearing babies can Bevery  though she is the wife of a doctor her husband is executive officer at the army s 97th general Hospital in Frankfurt she says it is rare that a doctor is Able to Given expectant Mother much information on breast feed ing. In fact she says often a woman is filled with Misin formation and discouraged from breast feeding. Foegen has nursed All seven of her own children plus one of her two adopted Tow year Olds. She says that she believes that without such milk Brian who was adopted in Korea would not have lived. It seems that before the adoption process was completed Brian then six weeks old became seriously ill and could not digest any formula. She believes he Wouldhave died of malnutrition had breast milk not been Intro  information on la leche write to Foegen at Wolf Gan Strasse 14, d-6000 Frankfurt West Germany