Lactivism

From RationalWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Deliciously edible!

Food and Diet

link=:category:
Dubious diets
Food woo

Not to be confused with slacktivism.

Milk is generally considered good for infants, hence why the class survived for ~200 million years.

"Lactivism" is an apparent portmanteau of "lactate" and "activism" used to describe the (often sensible) advocacy of breast-feeding in contrast to bottle feeding. Its main focus is on promoting the health benefits associated with breast milk and with attempting to counteract discrimination nursing mothers can face at work. Pretty much every medical organisation, doctor, and nurse on the face of the planet agrees with the old axiom "breast is best."[1] Studies prove that breast milk offers immunological and other benefits which cannot be found in infant formula.[1] However, more doctrinaire breast-feeding advocates imbue this simple biological process with a quasi-religious significance, and then use this to make mothers who can't (or, Heaven forbid, won't) breast-feed feel like child abusers.

Though once a popular speculation, recent research suggests that breastfeeding does not play much of a factor in a child's intelligence, finding instead that it is much more strongly correlated to maternal intelligence.[2]

[edit] Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh opposes breast-feeding[3], though likely not out of informed decision-making, but as a knee-jerk to Michelle Obama's Health Forums, or perhaps as a way to curry favor with patriarchal conservatives who freak out at the idea of a woman's breast being exposed to view. Juicy speculation has also revolved around Freudian and Oedipal explanations.

[edit] External Links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Breastfeeding[wp]
  2. Der, G., Batty, G. D., & Deary, I.J. (2006). Effect of breast feeding on intelligence in children: prospective study, sibling pairs analysis, and meta-analysis. British Medical Journal, 333 (7575).
  3. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201009210046
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support