>From: Tak Oda <toda@m...> > >On Thu, 28 Sep 2000, Cynthia Donnell quoted Jane Brody: > > Type 1 diabetes, as juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes is now >called, is > > an autoimmune disease, and there is some evidence that people who >develop it > > tend to have high levels of antibodies in their blood to the proteins in > > cows' milk. The risk, if there is a real one, of developing this form of > > diabetes seems to be related to the consumption of unmodified cows' milk >in > > infancy by susceptible people. > >Just for the record - it seems my assertion that infants can sometimes >develop antibodies to cow milk protein has some credence in the medical >world. Here it is from a health "professional". > >So that's two for two - 1) Nestle *is* evil and under sanction from the >World Health Organization, and 2) there are risks of developing an immune >response to cows milk in infants. >
But saying that people who have Type I diabetes have antibodies to cows' milk in the blood is not the same as saying that ANY infant who is exposed to cows' milk will get the disease. I have heard of Type I diabetes being diagnosed in babies less than a year old, who have had naught but Mother's milk.
My problem with these discussions is that it's presented as an inevitable either/or situation. It may be *sensible* to limit an infant's exposure to cow's milk, just as it was sensible for my sister to limit her children's exposure to nuts because of our family history of really nasty allergies. But that doesn't mean that a spoonful of ice cream given to a baby means a lifetime of insulin injections.
Elizabeth Finkler http://home.earthlink.net/~mightymezzo/ mightymezzo@h...
"Virtue is triumphant only in theatrical productions." --The Mikado
"Quitters never win. Winners never quit. But those who never win and never quit are just plain stupid." --anonymousse
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