A new research suggests that breast-feeding in infancy reduces the risk of becoming obese in life later on. According to Dr. William H. Dietz of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, who led the research team, effects of breast milk significantly lowered the odds of being overweight by the early teen years, but showed less effect on weight during early childhood.
In another study, Dr. Mathew W. Gilman and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, looked at more than 15,300 adolescents aged 9 to 14. They found that those who had been breast-fed were less likely to be overweight compared with those who were raised mostly or exclusively on formula milk.Kids fed mainly on breast milk for the first 6 months of life were 22% less likely to be overweight by age 14.
Also it was found that the longer the children were breast-fed, the chances of them not being obese were more. For example, those who were breast-fed for at least 7 months were 20% less likely to be overweight than those babies who were given breast milk for 3 months. The link between breast-feeding and weight remained even after Gilman’s team considered key factors like the children’s calorie intake, exercise levels and their mothers’ body weight.
The reason why breast-feeding might reduce the risk of obesity later in life is unclear. One possibility is that formula milk and breast milk have different impacts on babies’ metabolism, with breast milk having more positive effects on fat storage.
This might give us an insight as to how we can fight obesity in life. So if you want your kids to stay slim when they grow up, make it a point to breast-feed them without fail. Remember, breast-feeding fights obesity.
