Fri, May-08-09, 05:03
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Higher fat, rather than high-carb, diet appears to benefit nursing mother and baby
From Dr Briffa's blog:
Quote:
Higher fat, rather than high-carb, diet appears to have benefits for nursing mothers and their babies
Posted By Dr John Briffa On May 8, 2009
Partly because I have never and am never going to breastfeed, I am wary about advocating it. I do genuinely believe that women who want to benefit should be given every available support and encouragement. On the other hand, if a woman chooses not to breastfeed or cannot breastfeed for some reason, then as a culture we should be able to allow this situation without judgement or criticism.
While it’s clearly not for everyone, I do believe that, overall, there are compelling reasons to believe that breastfeeding trumps formula feeding. Back in 2006 I reviewed the evidence for the benefits (for both mother and child) here. Near the bottom of this piece I cited some research which links breastfeeding with lower maternal body weight after birth. This provides at least some evidence for the notion that women who breastfeed are more likely to attain their pre-pregnancy weight than women who bottle feed their babies.
However, if a mother is to breastfeed, what would be the best diet for her to eat?
This question was partially answered by a study which is in press at the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition [1]. In this study, two different diets were tested on a group of breastfeeding women at two different times. One diet was relatively high in carbohydrate and low in fat (60 and 25 per cent carb and fat respectively), while the other was relatively low in carb and high in fat (30 and 55 per cent of carb and fat respectively). Each diet was trialled for 8 days. The diets provided very similar levels of calories (about 1800 cals per day).
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The article continues here: http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/2009/0...d-their-babies/ |
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