AnnaleeApr 24, 2023

Read an article today about why Americans think alcohol has health benefits and it's apparently another "well the French are healthy and they do X so it's healthy to do X."

So here's your periodic reminder that France (and Italy, and Sweden, and Japan, and basically every country you've seen in a "this country is so healthy, what's their secret?" headline) has universal health care.

The secret is access to health care. It's always access to health care.

Show threadAnnaleeApr 24, 2023

And of course access to health care goes hand-in-hand with other social safety nets. Turns out people are healthier when they are food and housing secure, have better labor protections, have better support in early childhood and better support as parents of young children, etc.

The thing is that those things rather by definition are not consumer products that can be sold in the US market, so they don't get media campaigns and catchy headlines about how you can buy them for $20.

Show threadEvan HuntApr 24, 2023

@Annalee

I recently read that this is the origin of the idea that breastfeeding is healthier than formula: people who can afford to stay home and breastfeed can afford other nice things too. I felt really stupid for never having realized that before.

(I'm prepared to feel stupid again if it was you who mentioned that before and I'm explaining it back to you now...)

Show threadLacci 🐇Apr 25, 2023
@nuthaven
It has been extremely well experimentally verified in studies across cultures controlled for confounding variables like income etc that breastfeeding is healthier than formula, but yes people who can afford to stay home and breastfeed or have accommodating jobs for pumping breast milk can afford tons of other nice things too and those are also incredibly significant. And the way breastfeeding as a parent is treated by the culture has almost nothing to do with the science.
Show threadLacci 🐇Apr 25, 2023
@nuthaven
Women who for whatever reason don't breastfeed get shamed like crazy for misogynistic and racist/classist reasons in a way that almost exactly mirrors the way women were who breastfed when the medical establishment was claiming (without evidence) that formula was much healthier. At that time people who used formula were more affluent and whiter and could afford tons of other nice things too. It's bigotry justifying itself through prevailing beliefs regardless of whether they're true.
Show threadLacci 🐇
@nuthaven
But yeah there is significant benefit to breastfeeding, and actually benefits to continuing breastfeeding a kid to ages where women get shamed like hell for it now. And stuff like friends and family sometimes breastfeeding each other's kids is practically considered child abuse even though that's been shown to benefit health.
Apr 25, 2023 at 9:19amFedilab
Show threadLacci 🐇Apr 25, 2023
@nuthaven
Almost nobody formula feeds without good reason in the US now and it's a lifesaving technology we're lucky to have that shouldn't have any stigma associated with it. And high quality formula absolutely should be provided free. And they need to do controlled trials on things like free donated milk banks for non-nursing parents so their kids get key benefits of nursing, which seem to be significant early for infants even if some breast milk is just supplementing a primarily formula diet.