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It is the first food. Without any doubt. For those born, the breast milk represents the optimal food. And breastfeeding is a good strategy for the first few months in good health and to lay the foundations for future well-being. In particular, it seems that being breastfed can limit the risks (obviously do not eliminate them, given the role of the environment and future nutrition) to develop obesity.
To add a piece to the mosaic of knowledge on the subject is now an international research that links the “richness” of milk in a certain substance, betaine, with the baby’s tendency to keep weight under control. This is still an initial figure, but certainly interesting, also because the European and American international scientists who conducted the study published the report in an important journal such as Science Translational Medicine.
The “mystery” of betaine
Normally betaine is contained in foods such as quinoa, broccoli, spinach and more generally in whole foods. The hypothesis is that then, by affecting the microbiota, it can help in weight control, not only in women but also in the newborn who has it available thanks to breast milk.
In fact, the study shows that there is a relationship between the amount of betaine present in breast milk and the possibility of developing obesity in children. The milk of a population of women was studied and it was found that when they ate foods richer in betaine they tended to have greater quantities of the substance in their milk and that the children who consumed more of it saw the odds decrease, albeit slightly. to become “chubby”.
From this observation, an experimental investigation began on animals which were offered diets with a surplus of betaine before giving birth and consequent increase of betaine in the milk of the nurses. It was found that as puppies grew older, those breastfed with higher levels of betaine were less likely to become obese even if fed a high-fat diet. Not only that: even as adults, the animals that had seen their mothers supplement the diet with betaine (and consequent repercussions on the mother’s milk) had an average weight slightly lower than their peers.
How to explain this phenomenon? At the moment we are only talking about hypothesis. But it seems that there is a role played by the bacteria present in the intestine, or the microbiota, in some way influenced by betaine. In fact, it was seen that mice that consumed mother’s milk with high levels of betaine had higher levels of intestinal bacteria of the genus Akkerrmansia: these bacterial strains have long been correlated with better weight control, not only in animals but also in ‘ human being.
The benefits of breastfeeding
In short, breast milk can offer a series of components that are really useful for the newborn, in terms of weight control. in fact, it allows to offer nutrients and substances capable of exerting effects also on the intestinal microbiota. in addition to favoring the development of an efficient immune system, it seems that the microorganisms present in milk could be correlated to the composition of the maternal microbiota. Obviously, then, with the mother’s milk other compounds are offered that act on the bacteria of the small intestine. Just think of oligosaccharides, the third most abundant component in breast milk after lactose and lipids and can selectively influence the growth and function of the microbiota. And this is just an example.
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