Healthy mothers who want
to breastfeed their babies are offering them an optimal natural source of high
nutrition. Dartmouth College reported on Feb. 23, 2015, formula poses a greater arsenic risk than breast
milk. Dartmouth researchers observed that formula fed infants had higher
arsenic levels than infants who were breastfed.
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| Arsenic in Infant Formula |
Source: HEALTH
AND WELLNESS BLOG INDIA
Co-lead author Kathryn
Cottingham, who is a professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth, says the results
of this study have suggested that breastfeeding can decrease arsenic exposure
even at the relatively low levels of arsenic which are generally seen in the
United States. This offers us a very important public health benefit of
breastfeeding.
Arsenic has been found to
occur naturally in bedrock and is a common contaminant of well water worldwide.
Arsenic causes cancers and other diseases. Exposure to arsenic early in life
has been associated with increased fetal mortality, decreased birth weight, and
lowered cognitive function. The Environmental Protection Agency has set a
maximum contaminant level of arsenic for public drinking water. However,
private well water is not subject to regulation and is the primary source of
water in many rural areas in the United States.
This study has been
published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. It has been found
in previous studies that there are relatively low breast milk arsenic
concentrations even in areas which have high drinking water arsenic levels. The
results from this study have suggested that breastfed infants have lower
arsenic exposure than infants who are formula fed. This finding should serve as
an incentive for healthy mothers to breastfeed their babies.
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| Breastfeeding Baby to less arsenic than those given formula |
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