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Fat-fighting baby milk?

By j7uy5 on April 23, 2007.

From
BBC:



face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6575767.stm">Fat-fighting
baby milk criticised



Plans to add a hormone which suppresses hunger to baby formula food is
unlikely to work say experts.



University of Buckingham researchers are looking at adding leptin to
formula milk to curb future over-eating.



But experts said the work detailed in Chemistry and Industry was
"wildly optimistic science fiction" and questioned testing leptin on
babies.



Babies fed with formula grow more quickly than breast-fed babies - who
have a lower risk of obesity as adults.


This
sounds like a bad idea.  



Who is going to test it on their kids?  How long will it take
to find out if it is safe, much less effective, over he long run?
 I can tell you that i would not be satisfied with any study
that ran less than 20 years, and be then the patent would have run out.



The developers say that leptin is present in breast milk, so they do
not think of it as an artificial additive.  But biological
systems are regulated in various ways, whereas the bottled milk would
not be.  It would simply be a fixed dose.  It is hard
to believe that anyone would think this is a good idea.


Tags
medicine

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