The Mercola website has announced that his team is working to produce “the finest infant formula on the market.“
An excerpt from Dr. Mercola’s article announcing this development states:
I must admit, that when I first got wind of this news, I was puzzled.  As a Mom who breastfed her first two children for 2 years each and her youngest child for 3 1/2 years, I am definitely in full support of the “breast is best” mentality.
However, I have a very strong practical streak, which is why I also very much support a safe, healthy homemade milk based or hypoallergenic nondairy baby formula when a Mom adopts or finds herself unable to breastfeed for health reasons.
It is a very imperfect world, after all, and the best situation of a well nourished Mom who is willing and able to breastfeed is not always possible in the final analysis.
Let’s take this practical line of thought a step further. Â Suppose a nonbreastfeeding Mom is simply unwilling to take the time and effort to source the quality ingredients required to make the homemade baby formula and insists on buying commercial formula of some kind.
In that case, there is currently no brand of commercial baby formula on the market which qualifies as acceptable in the remotest sense of the word. Even Earth’s Best organic formula is completely unacceptable due to high temperature processing, use of rancid vegetable oils, nonfat milk powder and packaging in BPA laced cans.
With that in mind, Mercola’s commercial baby formula has the potential to fill a real void in the baby formula market if and only if he is able to produce a commercially available infant formula that includes:
- Low temperature dried, whole milk powder
- Coconut oil
- Non rancid, expeller pressed sunflower oil
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Lactose
- Non-industrialized cod liver oil or other natural source of vitamins A/D/K2
- Bifidobacterium Infantis (probiotic)
- Whole foods source of vitamin C such as acerola powder
- Whole food source of B vitamins such as low temp dried nutritional yeast
- Low temp dried beef gelatin
- Non BPA packaging
While such a formula would never come close to the perfection of breastmilk from a well nourished Mother or even the homemade dairy infant formula using quality, grassfed raw milk, such a commercial formula would certainly be a huge step forward in improving the disastrous quality of infant formulas on the market today. Goat milk formula or even camel milk formula is an option as well.
So, although I am skeptical, I am trying to think positively about this upcoming product release from Dr. Mercola especially since the ingredient list and processing methods have yet to be disclosed.
How do you feel about Dr. Mercola’s announcement?  Do you feel that it could be an improvement over what is available commercially today or is this a step backward in the Real Food movement’s press for more Moms to be well nourished and to choose breastfeeding or, at the very least, the homemade baby formula?
Let’s wait and see what he comes up with!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
I am a huge breastfeeding proponent. I breastfed all five of my biological children for at least 18 months. I now have an adopted daughter, and she is formula fed. Breast is best, but I don't have that option this time around. I would very much support a better formula that improves on what is currently available for those who cannot breastfeed.
I think it could be a good thing, but I'm expecting it to be either prohibitively expensive or have compromises, like I know Mercola promotes rice protein powder or whey protein powder for adults (?)
On the topic, what do you think of elemental formulas? I'm just curious.
PS – Sarah, I think your list of requirements is spot-on. Those are exactly the things I'd look for if I had to resort to store-bought (or internet-bought) formula.
This is one case where I'd rather wait to pass judgment until the product is available. I refuse to see Dr. Mercola's quest to produce formula as inherently bad. The "lactivist" community seems to think he's somehow undermining breastfeeding, but the truth of the matter is, there are plenty of babies that WILL be (or HAVE to be) formula-fed, and if there's a chance to get formula that is heads and shoulders above the junk that's currently available (not claiming that his WILL be, but I'm going to take the "wait and see" approach), that's a good thing.
My son was born with a colon that ruptured at birth AND was allergic to my breast milk (even after I changed my diet to avoid allergens) .. this would have been a better option to at least have something other than what was available. We had to buy a 'predigested' formula as that was all he could tolerate. Breast is best .. but there are different situations that warrant an alternative.
Hi Pavil, here is a link to the 2 videoblog recipes I did last month on making homemade baby formula:
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/search/label/homemade%20baby%20formula
Pavil is cynical about Dr Mercola's magic hat. Perhaps a better question might be: How would one prepare their own infant formula ( in terms of a recipe) ?
I agree with Nancy. As an adopted mom, there were very few options available to me so this has to be a good thing.
That's a good point, Nancy. If Dr. Mercola can produce an infant formula that mimics the homemade formula based on the criteria I listed, then it could be a big help as the ones on the market today are all awful.
Sarah, what about adopted babies? What about babies whose mothers are very ill – or, rarely, the mother who dies? Or mothers of drug addicted babies who are in foster care or maybe returned to their mothers when the mothers recover. There will always be a need for infant formula – even if most mothers are successfully breastfeeding.