Breastfeeding Boosts Cardio Fitness in Children

A new study has evaluated the cardiorespiratory fitness of 1,025 children and 971 teenagers, based on how long they were breastfed. Breastfeeding for longer than six months enabled superior cardiorespiratory fitness, independent of any confounding variables such as birth weight or body weight.

Various physiological lessons are learned in the womb and first few years of life. Better aerobic fitness and a higher ability to utilize oxygen properly are key lessons for a healthy body. We know that better cardiorespiratory fitness in youth is associated with less cardiovascular disease later in life.

One way to give children a better epigenetic dealing of the deck is to breastfeed for longer than six months. Breastmilk contains many biologically active compounds that will never be replicated in any type of food.