Jan 09 2010
New Mom Looking For Lower Cholesterol And A Flatter Belly?
Breastfeeding has been found to benefit both mom and baby in many ways. And now there is even more reason to consider nursing your baby! A recent a Kaiser Permanente study has concluded that breastfeeding your baby can lower your risk for metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is a collection of conditions, including excess body fat, high insulin levels and high cholesterol levels. Having metabolic syndrome can lead to diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
The numbers? If you breastfeed your baby, you may lower your risk for developing metabolic syndrome by 39 to 56 percent. Of course, this depends on the length of time you breastfeed. Women who have gestational diabetes lower their risk by a whopping 44 to 86 percent!
This twenty year study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The findings “indicate that breastfeeding a child may have lasting favorable effects on a woman’s risk factors for later developing diabetes or heart disease.”
And even better? Women who breastfed tended to have less belly fat and higher levels of the good cholesterol HDL-C. What could be better?
