"And don't worry about the bits you can't understand. Sit back an allow the words to wash around you, like music." --Roald Dahl, "Matilda"
Are we dancing to the tune of the internet: slithering snakes across my computer screen, falling facebook avocados splattering upon the keyboard, baby anole’s tiktok adventure, palmetto bugs scrambling for likes, and vultures on the edge of a meal? Are we all just click bait to a world of smoke and mirrors? Very likely. How about the story of the Florida man who impregnated the alligator? Or the Florida politician who was abducted by aliens and the crowds cheered? Wait a minute, that’s not a true story? Confused? Not me I know click bait, when I see it! Please don’t confuse me with the facts! I am just an ignorant citizen living in a world of smoke and mirrors, pretending to be a writer.
Well, it has been suggested to me that I should be writing more about patents. So here goes. Some patents to contemplate, served on platter of platitudes. Possibly served with a glass of left-over breastmilk? Or is it served on a side dish of boredom, and full of grammar pancakes? Enjoy!
US Patent #11,191,293 owned by Nestec, S.A., Societe des Produits Nestec,S.A. filed in 2016.
Title: “Nutritional composition and infant formula for promoting myelination of the brain.”
“In a recent study it was demonstrated that the brain structure, in particular the amount and/or temporal-spatial distribution of myelinated matter throughout the brain of the exclusively breastfed infants can differ from infants fed infant formula, and that these differences can be correlated with enhanced intelligence, learning, and/or cognitive functioning in the breastfed infants, in particular in later life, even when confounding factors are accounted for (“Breastfeeding and early white matter development: a cross sectional study,” Deoni et al. NeuroImage 82 (2013), 77-86).” https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=2&f=G&l=50&s1=11191293,.PN.+11278047.PN.&OS=PN/11191293,+OR+PN/11278047&RS=PN/11191293,+OR+PN/11278047
An infant formula company proclaims in a US Patent that exclusively breastfed infants have enhanced intelligence, learning and/or cognitive functioning. The invention is to include fatty acids like DHA and AA. Some 20 years ago Martek fatty acid oils (DHA and AA-genetically engineered) were added to infant formulas. Has this improved cognitive function of formula fed infants?
US Patent #11,278,047 owned by Nestec, S.A. filed in 2017
Title: “Lipid composition for use in infants and young children for promoting gut comfort and optimal fat and calcium absorption”
“Even many improvements in the nutrient composition of IF [Infant Formula] have been made during the last decades, there are still important differences in compositions as well as in functional benefits conveyed by HM[Human Milk]. In particular, differenced are still observed in fat and calcium absorption as well as in gastrointestinal tolerance between breast-fed (BF) and formula-fed (FF) infants. FF infants have lower absorption of both fat and Ca [Calcium] than BF infants.” https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11191293,.PN.+11278047.PN.&OS=PN/11191293,+OR+PN/11278047&RS=PN/11191293,+OR+PN/11278047
Someone has to explain to me the reasoning behind fortification of preterm infants. Scientists have believed for many years that there isn’t enough fat or calcium in breastmilk. But a formula company has several patents stating that formula-fed infants have lower absorption of calcium and fat than breast-fed infants. Is it possible that the earlier research on breastmilk was only measuring amounts of calcium and fat and not what was absorbed? Or has an infant formula company paid for inaccurate science and patents?
US Patent #11,260,088 owned by Abbott Laboratories filed in 2018
Title: “Methods for increasing growth of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract”
“Breastfeeding has been associated with enhanced development and balanced growth and maturation of the infant’s biological systems, including the gastrointestinal system, thereby providing protection of the infant to infections and other gut-related conditions and diseases. Among other components, breastmilk includes human milk oligosaccharides that not only act as pathogen receptor analogues, but activate immune factors by infant intestinal epithelial cells and/or associated immune cell population.” https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11260088.PN.&OS=PN/11260088&RS=PN/11260088
It appears to me that Abbott’s US patent of using their HMOs (Human Milk Oligosaccharides) is not working well enough to suppress pathogens like Cronobacter. But who am I to say such things? I guess we should just applaud Abbott’s belief in breastfeeding. Watching the dance of the sugar plum fairies in the fields of never-never land,
Copyright 2022 Valerie W McClain
