Two things that really concern your doctor

Nothing concerns a doctor more than your good health. Well, maybe one thing — and it’s a word of all things.

There is a concerted effort by the medical establishment to convince you that anything other than their side effect-ridden, chemical-laden prescriptions and often unnecessary medical procedures are dangerous. And what’s especially heinous about their latest attempts is that they are vilifying something as natural as breastfeeding to convince you of this.

In their efforts to wholly discredit anything natural or alternative, they’re desperately trying to poison your perception of the pure and simple act of a mother nourishing her own child in the way God and nature intended. If that’s not a huge warning sign pointing to the drastic measures conventional medicine will take to discredit alternative and natural health options — I don’t know what is.

Apparently a couple of doctoral researchers out of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania felt so strongly that positive reinforcement for breastfeeding could derail parents’ good sense in making healthcare choices for their children — and likely themselves — that they issued a warning that was printed in Pediatrics…

In the April issue, Jessica Martucci, PhD, and Anne Barnhill, PhD, Medical Ethics and Health Policy researchers at Penn Medicine, warn that “[t]his messaging plays into a powerful perspective that ‘natural’ approaches to health are better.”

Implying that natural is better really has these two riled up. They are so afraid (very afraid I’d say to make such a ridiculous statement) that you may realize natural is better, that they are recommending the word “natural” not be used to promote breastfeeding — or anything else for that matter…

A natural fallacy

They especially took aim at some public health campaigns, such as the US Department of Health and Human Services’ “It’s only natural” breastfeeding promotion, the American Academy of Pediatrics labeling of breast milk as “the best and most natural food for infants,” and a New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene poster describing breastfeeding as “Mom-made” as compared with formula feeding, labeled with a red circle that reads “Factory-made.”

Both Martucci and Barnhill write that while public health authorities and medical experts widely agree that breastfeeding is beneficial for both infants and mothers, there has been little discussion about the potentially harmful consequences of promoting breastfeeding as “natural.” They both concluded that, “We should think twice before referencing the ‘natural’ in breastfeeding promotion, even if it motivates women to breastfeed.”

Talk about shameful. They’d rather moms get a watered down message about the positive effects of breastfeeding, and risk fewer children receiving the resulting lifelong, immune-boosting “natural” health benefits.

But their true underlying goal is obvious. It’s to keep you from veering from the money and disease-making machine called conventional medicine. And breastfeeding isn’t all they want to steer you away from…

The authors cite other examples of what they call the “natural is automatically better” fallacy, including the rejection of genetically modified foods, preferring organic over conventionally grown foods, as well as longstanding concerns over water fluoridation (even though Harvard acknowledges fluoride dangers).

Let me ask you… what harm will eating an organic apple do you? None. What about a pesticide-laden apple? Lots — but even if the jury is still out on just how much damage those pesticides can do you — there is still the potential for harm. And Martucci and Barnhill would have you choose the potential for harm over natural any day. Don’t be fooled by their message.