Follow a very high energy diet during breastfeeding, with highly caloric foods and very appetizing for the mother, known as 'cafeteria diet', predisposes the baby to be obese in adulthood, beyond maternal obesity itself.
This is the main result of a recent investigation by Ciberobn, which studies the effects of this diet on nursing mothers on the metabolic health of their offspring.
Metabolic disorders: the fake thin
The results, collected in the thesis of Catalina Amadora Pomar, directed by Andreu Palou and Juana Sánchez of the Ciberobn group (Network Biomedical Research Center. Pathophysiology of Obesity and Nutrition) of the University of the Balearic Islands, has shown that in breastfeeding not everything goes.
The principal investigator explains that the popularly called 'cafeteria diet' includes milk with sugar, bacon, pastries, cookies ...:
"These are very appetizing products that may be common in the feeding of a nursing mother, but we have proven that it has consequences on the long-term metabolic health of her offspring."
The study, carried out with animal models, suggests that the offspring of the mothers fed with a very caloric diet, despite presenting, surprisingly, a lower body weight of babies,
"They suffer metabolic disorders in adulthood related to their ability to regulate glucose, which is linked to the risk of diabetes, as well as fatty liver."
In Babies and more Advancing complementary feeding for babies to gain more weight is a mistakeHe also insists that:
"This dangerous predisposition occurs, even when babies follow a normal and healthy diet after weaning, which shows that the breastfeeding diet is decisive."
The set of these metabolic alternations that manifest without being associated with an increase in body weight corresponds to "false thin" phenotype, which may be related to changes in milk composition of mothers fed very energetic foods during breastfeeding.
With these results, and considering that mothers want the best food for our children and hence we feed them with breast milk, we have to do a reflection exercise:
We must also eat well in breastfeeding, because what we eat affects our children in the short and long termIf you doubt whether you are eating well or not, we encourage you to read our article focused precisely on that topic, and that explains what foods you should consume and those that should be more limited in your diet. You sign up?
In Babies and more Healthy eating during breastfeeding: what you should knowPhotos | iStock
