Much has been made of the benefits of breastfeeding and the worrying increase in child obesity. But do you know how one relates to the other? Mount Sinai’s Samuel Lunenfeld Research has new data to suggest that breastfeeding can reduce a child's risk for obesity. A pretty significant find, considering that according to Stats Can, almost a third of kids between five and 17 are overweight or obese.
Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the study of children in Western Australia from birth to 14 years of age found a correlation between the length of time a baby is breastfed and that baby's fat mass and obesity gene (FTO) as a young adult.
While body mass index (BMI) has long been held as the measure for weight concerns in children and adults, researchers have discovered a connection between the so-called FTO gene and later obesity. Not only does breastfeeding stave off the risk of later obesity, if a child is exclusively breastfed for at least three months, the effects of the FTO gene variant can be reversed.
“The benefits of breast milk are well known. However, what is new, is to find that breastfeeding can have a significant impact on children who have a genetic predisposition to obesity,” said Dr. Briollais, Senior Investigator with the Lunenfeld and also Assistant Professor with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
With approximately 70 per cent of Canadian children thought to possess "at least one copy of the specific variant of the FTO gene responsible for increased BMI and obesity," the study is big news. As Dr. Stephen Lye, Associate Director of the Lunenfeld and also the Executive Director of the Fraser Mustard Institute for Health Development at the University of Toronto, says: “Rather than trying to treat the symptoms later, we’re better off trying to prevent them in the first place.”
More proof that breast truly is best—in case you needed it. And more incentive to seek out milk banks for moms who struggle to nurse.
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