Everything You Should Know About
Baby Formula
+ better alternatives
This aarticle is for educational purposes only and is not medical or pediatric advice.
It’s hard to find a bottle formula that doesn’t use ultra-processed seed and vegetable oils or sugar syrups as the first or second ingredient.
These oils are more and more being revealed for the public health hazard that they are, but for parents who need to find a way to feed their newborn without filling their brain up with oxidized omega-6 fatty acids.
Many Americans look to European markets for infant formula because of the more stringent consumer standards, but in some ways it’s even worse. Because of the continent’s strong cultural traditions in food and wellness, Europeans are often further abreast of the latest knowledge in fields like nutrition.
For example, a search on Google Italian for “powdered milk infant formula without vegetable oils” is monopolized by guides showing how consumers can avoid buying products containing tropical rainforest-damaging palm oil. The oil palm plantations have done the major part of their damage to tropical rainforest; that consumer struggle was largely lost 20 years ago. The idea that rapeseed oil, sunflower seed oil, or soybean oil are desirable to avoid hasn’t even crossed their minds.
Mostly, even infant formulas labeled “clean” or “organic” have several vegetable oils in parentheses as the second ingredient. This means the formula may be up to 20% made of these toxic, oxidized oils, while the parentheses mean that the manufacturer doesn’t know which oils were added and, in what quantities, to any given container of formula.
The last part is significant because some oils undergo much greater levels of processing than others. Novalac’s European formula, to use one example, lists coconut, palm, and canola oil. There’s nothing wrong with coconut oil. To the contrary, its fats are rapidly digestible thanks to their medium chains, and one of those saturated fats, lauric acid, is believed to have antimicrobial properties, can protect the hair and skin, and even improve dental health markers. Palm oil, though certainly destructive to forests, is half saturated fats and half linoleic and oleic acids, which are inflammatory omega-6 fats in nature.
The last one, canola oil, contains almost only inflammatory omega-6 oils from polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which are likely the cause behind the rise in heart disease in the Western World since the 1950s.
Science communicator and Medical Doctor Cate Shanahan claims that because the first three ingredients of many baby formulas are non-fat milk, sugar, and vegetable oil, that means infant formula is 98% made up of those ingredients, making it the same basic substance as any candy bar on the shelf at the check-out counter. A shocking statement.
Rancid oils
The reason that industrial seed and vegetable oils are so harmful is the amount of fat molecules that have been oxidized, or to use the colloquial term: rancid.
Excluding coconut, avocado, and olive oils, every seed oil has its microscopic amount of polyunsaturated fat extracted by introducing the sunflower seed, soybean, corn kernel, etc. to extreme temperatures, during which those fats oxidize, releasing many harmful chemicals like hydroperoxides and hydroxy acid. It’s then processed with a petroleum-based solvent called Hexane.
At the end of the process, the oil is rancid, and would smell the way that rotting fat on a cut of beef or rancid fish would smell, so the oil is then deodorized with special chemicals and with synthetic antioxidants like BHT, BHA, and TBHQ.
It was later discovered that oxidization of LDL was initiated by linoleic acids, the polyunsaturated fat in canola oil, palm oil, and every other seed oil, within the LDL particle itself, and future discoveries also concluded that the most numerous oxidized fatty acid within LDL was indeed linoleic acid.
The authors conclude their historical recounting thusly.
“Hence, the amount of linoleic acid contained in LDL can be seen as the true ‘culprit’ that initiates the process of oxLDL formation as it is the linoleic acid that is highly susceptible to oxidation. Additionally, an increase in the intake of linoleic acid increases the linoleic acid content of very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) increasing their susceptibility to oxidize, which further increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.”
Thus, expanding on the oxLDL theory of heart disease, a more comprehensive theory, the ‘oxidized linoleic acid theory of coronary heart disease’, is as follows: dietary linoleic acid, especially when consumed from refined omega-6 vegetable oils, gets incorporated into all blood lipoproteins (such as LDL, VLDL, and HDL) increasing the susceptibility of all lipoproteins to oxidize and hence increases cardiovascular risk.
Linoleic acid-rich seed oils are present in almost all baby formulas, potentially setting up whole generations of children for heart disease, since linoleic acid can remain in fat cells for decades.
Sorn Syrup Solids | Corn Syrup | Brown Rice Syrup
Another major ingredients we see in many baby formulas are corn syrup / corn syrup solids, and brown rice syrup…..WHY?
Here’s the argument for these sweeteners…..*NOTE: The below bullet points are taken from sources explaining the benefits of corn syrup in baby formula – THE BELOW IS NOT MY OWN OPINION.
- Hypoallergenic
Corn syrup solids are made from hydrolyzed corn starch and are considered hypoallergenic. - Digestibility
Corn syrup solids are clinically shown to be well-tolerated by infants who have issues with other carbohydrates. - Carbohydrate source
Infant formulas need carbohydrates to provide energy for growth. Corn syrup is a carbohydrate that can be used in place of or in addition to lactose. - Lactose sensitivity
Corn syrup is often used in formulas for infants who are thought to be sensitive to lactose. However, some experts say that lactose intolerance is rare in babies, and that formulas should be lactose-based unless a child has a specific condition. - Therapeutic formulas
Corn syrup is used in therapeutic formulas to replace lactose and to help prevent diarrhea. Corn syrup’s slightly sweet taste can also help ensure that infants are willing to drink the formula.
Now, though all the points above may be true, there are also other alternatives to corn syrup and even brown rice syrup such as blackstrap molasses (which was part of the homemade goat milk formula I will share in a minute), yacon syrup, heck, even maple syrup or coconut sap / syrup may even be better. Yes, these are all very high in sugar however they are processed differently. Just like there are healthy fats and bad fats, there are “healthy” sugars (or less processed ones) and bad sugars (bleached, deodorized, degummed, nutrient stripped, etc.)
In fact, blackstrap molasses has loads of benefits and is actually the byproducts of sugar manufacturing where the sugar is stripped from all it’s nutrients to make white sugar and what’s left is blackstrap molasses which contains all the vitamins and nutrients!
I talk all about is in
THIS EPISODE
(18 minute listen)
Episode 165:
The sugar that May Help Iron Deficiency, Bone Health, Hair, and Even Help w/ Constipation
HOMEMADE GOAT MILK BABY FORMULA
This was the goat milk baby formula Mt. Capra send me back in 2021. The story as to why they sent me it was that I was thinking about creating m own formula with them (at the time) but the deal never went through because after a full year of going back and forth, the company decided they didn’t want their formula or anyone they were affiliated with going “Viral” – in short, I believe they didn’t want the news to go public through my promotion that they offered such a kit for mothers….it was kind of a “hush hush” thing and the baby formula kit was eve hard to find on their own website at the time…..since then it’s been removed and they no longer sell it
Here’s why!
To quote the FDA letter:
“May 10, 2024 – Healthwest Minerals, Inc. d/b/a Mt. Capra Products of Chehalis, Washington, is recalling 1,506 boxes of Goat Milk Formula Recipe Kit on the recommendation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and advises consumers to immediately discontinue use of the product as infant formula. The FDA is concerned that the formula does not meet all FDA requirements for infant formula, does not provide sufficient nutrition when used as an infant formula, and the storage instructions may be insufficient for the product. Infants consuming the recalled product without additional iron supplementation can develop iron deficiency anemia and feeding intolerance.”
https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/healthwest-minerals-inc-dba-mt-capra-products-recalls-goat-milk-formula-recipe-kit-and-warns
BUT CHECK THIS OUT!
The FDA notified Mt. Capra of an adverse event report of anemia in one infant. FDA determined that while the caregivers were using the Goat Milk Formula Recipe Kit and recipe, the caregivers substituted some ingredients with a different brand of multivitamin, which created a product deficient in vitamin B12 as well as folate and ultimately resulted in the development of anemia.
The above document is what the company sent me (as they sent all the mothers who bought their kit at the time) to help and guide them.
Please note: I DID NOT CREATE THIS GOAT MILK BABY FORMULA RECIPE. This recipe was developed by a pediatrician who specialized in that field. Notice they include sunflower and grapeseed oil (not to be confused with rapeseed which is canola oil) which comes from the seeds of grapes and actually used in many countries due to it’s health benefits and high heat temp tolerance. No, I would prefer other options, but I can only give you my opinion and I am not giving any medical advice here….just passing on what the exact recipe kit was at the time they sent it to me…..with countless mamas praising this recipe and said they fed to their baby and they are now grown and healthy (so I assuming it’s been around for a while before things got more strict?)
Regardless, I think it’s far superior than what most conventional baby formulas offer int he USA.
NO corn syrup
NO brown rice syrup
NO soy
NO maltodextrin
NO cow’s milk
HOMEMDE BABY FORMULA
By
The Weston A Price Foundation
CLICK HERE
Their homemade baby formulas were created by Mary Enig, PhD and first published in the book
. To help with any questions about the recipes below, you can refer to the below;
Here are the top baby formulas I’ve found BUT they still all have some time of vegetable or seed oil….each contain different ones so just be mindful of that….but the options I’m about to share are still alot better than what’s currently on the mainstream market.
Try going to the online shop
which has an entire list of baby formulas that are all organic and mostly from Europe.
Non-Toxic Bottles
