Despite being Breast Fed, Children More Likely to Suffer from Asthma if Fast Food is Frequent

There are millions of women who ardently defend pregnant women bottle-feeding their babies with formula. But all fair-minded people can’t dispute the fact that the health benefits of breast milk overshadow those of the bottle. For instance, both formula milk and breast milk have lots of nutrients, but the nutrients outnumber those in formula milk and the nutrients that are in formula milk varies from brand to brand in overall quality and density.

From a standpoint of legitimate health benefits while young, studies show how breast milk helps children avoid hospital visits due to the fact that they’re less likely to suffer from earaches, diarrhea and rashes than babies fed formula.

Breast-fed babies also have legitimate health benefits farther down their road of life, like how they’re less likely to suffer from asthma, a condition that approximately 20 million live with every day and is the leading cause of hospitalization among American children.

The study that confirmed this was conducted by Australian researchers that analyzed over 2,800 Australian infant children and found that the children who drank breast milk in the first four months of life were far less likely to suffer from asthma or asthma-like conditions than those who drank something other than breast milk, like formula (i.e. asthma-like conditions=wheezing throughout first several months of infancy, difficulty sleeping due to wheezing, etc.). In fact, they were less likely to be diagnosed with asthma all the way up to age 6, a prime time for asthma to develop among children.

But new research out of the University of Alberta’s Department of Pediatrics in Canada indicates that the asthma-protection benefits breast milk provides can be cancelled out. How? Through fast food.

I don’t want to turn this into another one of those harangues against the fast food industry, but considering the fact that McDonald’s turned an 80 percent profit in worldwide sales in 2008 – signaling an expansion of their already ubiquitous presence across Europe (240 more “Golden Arches” scheduled for construction in 2009) – apparently another harangue is warranted.

I say this because despite all we know about the fast food industry peddling junk, McDonald’s and their fellow fast food floozies still seem to be getting their fair share of business, despite the negative health effects associated with what they offer for bottom dollar.

Asthma is the latest one, as the University of Alberta’s researchers found that children who were breast fed and ate fast food more than twice a week were more likely to have asthma than those who were breast fed but rarely ate fast food. Researchers found this to be the case after analyzing 700 children, most of whom did not have asthma (250 had asthma).

What explains fast food flubbing breast milk’s benefits? Researchers can’t be sure, but they think it’s the high fat content and sodium that saturates fast food – the two things responsible for so many health maladies already.

Asthma might not be the first thing on the list of things parents hope their kids avoid, but once a kid has it, trust me, it’s all they can think about. Keep their chances of getting it low by keeping their consumption of fast food low.

Sources
Breastfeeding.com
Science Daily
American Pregnancy Association
FDA
International Business Times