Fast-Food Diets Reverse Benefits of Breast Feeding

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Eating fast food even once or twice a week negates one important health benefit of having been raised on breast milk.

While breastfeeding seems to reduce the risk of a child developing asthma, eating fast food once or twice a week reverses the gains, according to a study of 700 Canadian children by the University of Alberta, published in Clinical and Experimental Allergy. (press release.)

Children who are breastfed for 12 weeks or longer have a reduced risk of developing asthma, according to the study's authors. A childhood diet with more than occasional meals of fast food, however, erases the gains. While the study didn't attempt to explain why that is, the author's guess that it may have to do with fat and salt intake, which may lead to airway irritation.

Those concerned about eating healthy, and raising their children on a good diet, might benefit from the Center for Science in the Public Interest's latest Food Porn Alert:

After a full restaurant meal, would you order a rack of baby back ribs for dessert? How about a rack and a half? That would be roughly equivalent to Chili's Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie—the latest Food Porn exposed in Nutrition Action Healthletter. That dessert provides 1,590 calories (about three-quarters of a day's worth), 37 grams of saturated fat (almost two days' worth), and surprisingly, for a dessert, 910 milligrams of sodium (more than half a day’s worth).

Um...yum?

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