There is plenty of scientific evidence showing the benefits of breastfeeding for the baby’s health, not only during his first years of life or his adolescence, but throughout his adult life. For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the newborn begin to breastfeed in the first hour after delivery and that he be fed exclusively with breast milk for the first six months, without giving him any other food or drink, not even water.
The WHO indicates that children can start taking other foods from six months of age, but this is compatible with continuing to breastfeed for up to two years or more, because prolonged breastfeeding has many benefits for the health of mother and child . In fact, a group of Spanish scientists has just discovered why breastfeeding for longer can prevent obesity in adulthood.
The team made up of Galician researchers from the CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN), the Singular Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CiMUS of the USC) and the Santiago de Compostela Health Research Institute (IDIS) has found that rodent pups fed longer with breast milk are less likely to be obese as adults, even if they are exposed to a high-fat diet.
Activation of brown fat, which burns calories
“We are very satisfied because, for the first time, we have described the mechanism by which breastfeeding protects against the development of obesity with long-term effects in adulthood,” says Luisa María Seoane, who directed the study. Researchers from France and Germany have also participated in the study and their results, which have been published in Nature Metabolism, show that this protective effect against overweight is maintained in rodent offspring even when they are fed diets with a high caloric content.
“For the first time, we have described the mechanism by which breastfeeding protects against the development of obesity with long-term effects in adulthood”
This phenomenon can be explained, according to the researchers, by the release of a protein called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) from the liver, which can reach the hypothalamus, the area of the brain that is involved in controlling the consumption and use of energy in the body. In the hypothalamus, FGF21 activates dopamine receptors – a neurotransmitter with numerous biological functions – which leads to greater activity in brown fat, a fat that burns calories and thus causes greater energy expenditure.
The impact of maternal nutrition on their offspring has been extensively studied, but the mechanisms by which breastfeeding influences energy balance throughout life were not yet known. “Our work describes for the first time the existence of a mechanism altered by breastfeeding with permanent effects until adulthood and that involves both peripheral organs, such as the liver or adipose tissue, and the brain”, explains the CIBEROBN principal investigator.
For the first time, the mechanism responsible for the beneficial effects of breastfeeding has been described, which is an unprecedented achievement, but the researchers acknowledge that “further research is needed, however, to determine if these effects also occur in humans at through clinical studies, and better understand the long-term metabolic benefits of breastfeeding.”
Source: CIBEROBN
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