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 All Thumbs Book Reviews
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
By La Leche League International
Review by Sally Fallon
Now in its sixth edition, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
has served as guide to thousands of women determined to do the best
for their babies. And it is loaded with encouragement and practical
advice about getting started at baby's birth, and continuing breastfeeding
as baby grows.
Unfortunately, the dietary advice in this book is terrible, so wrong
that it is likely to undermine all the good that is intended in giving
baby breast milk instead of commercial formula.
Let's start with the first sentence in the chapter on nutrition. "If
you already have good eating habits, there is no reason for you to make
any major changes while you are breastfeeding." We'll look at what the
authors consider to be good eating habits in a moment, but even when
a woman's diet is very good, her body needs extra nourishment to build
a healthy child during pregnancy and lactation. The feeding of special,
nutrient-dense foods to pregnant and nursing women is a practice found
among all traditional peoples. These special foods were invariably animal
products, rich in fat, foods like fish eggs, shellfish, fish liver oils,
carp, butter, whole milk, organ meats, bear fat, eggs and pickled bones.
In China, for example, nursing women eat up to ten eggs per day, a "major"
dietary change that ensures high levels of important vitamins and fatty
acids in their milk.
But according to La Leche League, women should avoid high levels of
animal foods because "research has linked high-fat diets to heart disease
and other ills." Nursing mothers should cut back on animal fats and
eat more plant-based proteins, they say. "Any fat that is solid at room
temperature (butter, margarine, vegetable shortening) should be eaten
in moderation," is their advice, even though butter is an important
source of nutrients and the trans fats in margarine and vegetable shortening
are really bad news for the developing infant. "Safflower oil, canola
oil, and soybean oil. . . are important for your health," say the authors,
even though these invariably rancid oils contain nothing of benefit
to the mother or her infant.
All women have to do to have healthy breastmilk, say the authors of
this book, is to eat a varied diet and avoid sugar, additives, highly
processed cereals and grains, caffeine and soft drinks. Nursing women
should also avoid salt, they say, even though salt is vital for the
development of the baby's brain and nervous system. Human milk contains
sodium chloride for a reason, but there won't be much there if the mother
is avoiding salt.
As for supplementation, only brewers yeast and B12 for vegetarians
are recommended. Women can get vitamin A from carrots, they say, totally
ignoring research indicating the increased requirements for vitamin
A during pregnancy and lactation, and the difficulty of converting carotenes
in plant foods to true vitamin A found in animal fats. Tofu, full of
mineral-blocking phytic acid, is just as good a source of calcium as
milk products, say the authors of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.
As the national voice for breastfeeding, La Leche League has an enormous
responsibility to provide nursing mothers with accurate information
on diet and nutrition. Instead, the very women who have the will and
intelligence to enact the dietary changes that will ensure the optimum
development of their children are bamboozled into political correctness.
Hints that breastfeeding by poorly nourished mothers shortchanges the
nursing baby are sprinkled throughout the book--from pages devoted to
dealing with fussy babies to the admission that breastfed babies are
subject to tooth decay. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding needs
an overhaul and a change of focus--from the promotion of breastfeeding
for breastfeeding's sake to breastfeeding for healthy babies.
About the Reviewer
 Sally
Fallon is the author of
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct
Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), a well-researched,
thought-provoking guide to traditional foods with a startling message: Animal
fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary
for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection
from disease and optimum energy levels. She joined forces with Enig again to
write Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and has authored numerous articles on the
subject of diet and health. The President of the Weston A. Price Foundation
and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk,
Sally is also a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community
activist. Her four healthy children were raised on whole foods including butter,
cream, eggs and meat.
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