"ATLANTA -- While breast-feeding has many benefits, it won't prevent a child from becoming fat as an adult, says a new report that challenges dogma from U.S. health officials."
"The research is the largest study to date on breast-feeding and its effect on adult obesity."
""I'm the first to say breast-feeding is good. But I don't think it's the solution to reducing childhood or adult obesity," said the study's lead author, Karin Michels of Harvard Medical School."
"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promotes breast-feeding as a way to reduce children's excess weight, and the guidelines for federal chronic-disease prevention grants to states call for breast-feeding promotion."
"A CDC official said he couldn't comment on the new research because he hadn't fully reviewed it. But many previous studies have linked breast-feeding and lower rates of childhood obesity, he noted."