Page 86 - Fall2013

Much Ado About NothiNg
by Sylvia onusic, Phd, cNS, LdN

Forget sequestration-reducing funds for head Start and Meals on Wheels, the world financial crisis, and rising unem-
ployment. thomas badger, director, and his team at the uSdA-ARS children’s Nutrition center in Little Rock, Arkansas
continue to feast at the trough of public funding ad libitum as they churn out paper after paper on the data collected
from the “beginnings Study.” the sole purpose of this study is to make soy formula look good, no matter what the cost.

in this expensive on-going study, babies participating were recruited throughout the Little Rock area, not nationally or
state-wide. this is no random sample. the babies' feeding method was already predetermined. Sometimes the babies
entered the study after two or three months. there is no control, double blind, or any of those research gold standards
included in this study. the majority of babies are caucasian. Parents are paid for their time. Paying participants is
controversial, some insisting that payment of research subjects is unethical. the parents get free formula or diapers (if
mom is nursing), and monetary compensation: at every yearly visit starting at one hundred twenty five tax payer dollars
for the first year, and up to two hundred twenty-five for the sixth year visit.” Moreover, “other compensation,” which
is not defined, “may be provided for the full completion of each study visit.” in terms of time commitment, there are
seven study visits during the first year of life, one visit at eighteen months, and then yearly visits thereafter until the sixth
birthday, which take four to six hours on average.

“beginnings” follows a group of babies fed breast milk (bF), cow’s milk formula (cMF), and soy formula (SF) for six-years,
comparing various health and cognitive measures along the way. in the Wise Traditions article, “More government
Promotion of Soy based infant Formula,” we presented a serious analysis of the many flaws apparent in one of the pa-
pers produced by this team, “developmental Status of 1-Year-old infants Fed breast Milk, cow’s Milk Formula, or Soy
Formula,” published in Pediatrics (2012).
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in 2013 the same group published another paper from the “beginnings” study data, which attempted to create doubt
about the view that breast milk is best for baby. they focused on body fat and bone mineral content of this same group
of infants (in this case, the majority were white boys) and basically said that bF babies are fatter and have lower bone
mineral composition (bMc) at one year of age compared to the SF babies. badger called the SF babies, “the leaner body
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composition phenotype.” the SF babies deposited less FM (fat mass) than the cMF or bF infants during their first year.
Even though “study results found that SF-fed infants were significantly leaner than the bF infants through year one as
indicated by a greater total FFM (free fat mass),” out of all three groups, the SF fed babies weighed significantly more
than the bF or cMF babies at six, nine and twelve months, and they gained significantly more weight (grams per day),
than the bF and cMF babies. Farmers feed their livestock soy to fatten them up. does it work the same way in humans?

there was no control for ensuring that the exclusive diet was followed for each group. “Exclusive breastfeeding was
defined as feeding solely with breastmilk up to age six months” but only 56 percent of the babies were exclusively
breastfed until twelve months. Some were switched to cMF at age six to twelve months, yet these were classified as bF.
Juices, cereals and solid foods could be introduced at age four months in all three groups but no record was presented
describing how much of these foods were ingested by the babies. the formula intake was measured from a three-day
food record. in other words, no consideration was given to the introduction of variables which could prejudice the
results. We don’t know for sure the number of babies who were exclusively breastfed for the first year, and specifically
the diet of the breastfeeding mothers.

Furthermore, there is a problem with the calculation of body composition using the dXA (dual-energy X-ray absorpti-
ometry) scan. this test is usually used to measure bone density, but here it is used to show fat-free mass as well as bMc.
it is an indirect method for measuring body composition and allows for predictions and assumptions only. throughout
the procedure, the baby must be asleep on a blanket without moving. if there is any movement by the baby, the scan
must be discarded. how many babies made the grade? At twelve months, twenty-three in the bF group; seventeen in
the cMF group; and eighteen in the SF group, a very low number of babies upon which to generalize the grand findings
of this study. Much ado about nothing.

in this paper we don’t see any real data but “mean predicted total based on fitted covariate adjusted mixed model,
adjusted for age, sex, race, gestational age, birth weight, birth length, feeding history and mother’s SES (social economic
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