Conclusion
Conclusion
Whither Breastfeeding?
This concluding chapter situates breastfeeding in the context of debates about other contemporary health risks, in particular exploring the ongoing campaign against America's “obesity epidemic” as another example of the limits of epidemiology, neoliberalism, and framing health behavior as risky. The admonition to be thin, like the injunction to breastfeed, has become a guiding principle for those who seek to be healthy, responsible citizens. The obsessions with thinness and breastfeeding both stem from a glut of health information that reflects a misunderstanding and misuse of the concept of statistical significance in both science and the popular media. As moral agendas, they reveal a certain blindness to how what is labeled “healthy” reflects social privilege, and they give rise to fearmongering and hyperbole.
Keywords: obesity epidemic, contemporary health risks, epidemiology, neoliberalism, social privilege, breastfeeding, health risks
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