Breast-feeding no help in preventing adult obesity

Being breast-fed as a baby provides no protection against adult obesity, according to a U.S. study published on Tuesday.

Health agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics encourage women to breast-feed their babies for at least six months, mostly because many studies show it leads to healthier babies.

It also reduces the risk of childhood obesity.
But the effects do not appear to extend into adulthood, according to a study in the International Journal of Obesity.

Karin Michels and colleagues at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital studied 35,000 nurses working in the United States over a 12-year period.

Their mothers were asked to report on their breast-feeding habits.

When adjusted for socioeconomic factors, the researchers found breast-feeding had no significant effect on the body mass index or BMI of the nurses in adulthood. BMI is calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.

Breast-feeding for more than 6 months does appear to have a benefit in children. The study found these kids a had a leaner body shape at age 5, but this benefit did not extend into adolescence or adulthood.

The authors said that while breast-feeding promotes the health of mother and child, it is not likely to play an important role in controlling the obesity epidemic.