Story of Stuff and breastmilk

[IdahoMom]

I was just watching The Story of Stuff (story of stuff dot com, I've seen it mentioned elsewhere on Mothering), and she says that human breastmilk contains the "highest level of many toxic contaminants" and says babies are getting high levels of contaminants from their mothers' milk. (But, she says, it's still best and mothers should definitely continue breastfeeding. However if I happened to not be an educated advocate of BF for at least a year, that might sway me away from doing it.)

There were a few other things in this video that I took issue with, but this one especially stood out to me. Has that been discussed here?

[kriket]

I do remember talking about it. I can't find the thread to save my life.... I think the jist of it was.. "PTTTHH!!!" You get the same contanimates from being on the earth. Plus, eating an organic, (LOCAL ) generally good for you diet will help you not being full of toxins.

[Can Dance]

apparently if you eat veg, your levels are significantly lower.
you can check out www.hippiemommy.com and check a book review:
http://www.hippiemommy.com/category/...breastfeeding/

[ramama]

My thought is that if there are toxins stored in the fat in our bodies and BM is made from fat stores, don't cows have the same exposure we do (hey, we share the earth and the air) and wouldn't it pass into their milk too? ie. to make formula?

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by ramama

My thought is that if there are toxins stored in the fat in our bodies and BM is made from fat stores, don't cows have the same exposure we do (hey, we share the earth and the air) and wouldn't it pass into their milk too? ie. to make formula?

That was my thought. I can totally believe there are toxins in our BM, and of course the amount and type varies by our lifestyles etc. But don't tell me there's more toxins in our BM than in formula?? Heck, half the ingredients in formula I consider toxins by default! Not to mention, yeah, cows eating nonorganic food, breathing the same air, drinking the same (or worse) water, being injected with god knows what, etc.

[Kappa]

I don't think it's fair to make light of breast milk contamination without discussing or at least mentioning impurities in formula. It could cause major cognitive dissonance in future mothers to tell them "Your breast milk is contaminated, but it's still best." Very bright, intelligent, loving mothers could easily say "Even though it's best, I don't want to feed my baby something contaminated." People associate the word contaminated with scary nuclear radioactive type things, or gross things like human waste (ie contaminated water).

[elizaMM]

someone should write the Story of Stuff folk and tell them. :