I’m a fan of breastfeeding. I’ve said so on this thread. You don’t have to prove it prevents obesity to prove it’s worth doing. And I don’t really give a rat’s ass if it prevents obesity, since I don’t believe obesity is a terrible thing. What I care about is when people say flat out, “We have no evidence, but we’re going to keep saying it’s true.” That happens WAY too much with obesity research.

You take one article – which contradicts the majority of studies – and come to the conclusion that breastfeeding doesn’t protect against obesity? Seems to me you’re cherry-picking “evidence”.

Oh, and this “Okay, so first of all, babies don’t even eat with their mouths in utero. Taste buds, my ass.”

Actually, much as the researcher was clearly talking through their arse with the cheetos and white bread thing, foetuses do swallow amniotic fluid in utero, so they do “eat with their mouths” (or more accurately they “drink with their mouths”, what pregnant women eat *does* affect the taste of the amniotic fluid, and it does actually affect what babies like to eat later. See here for details. Ditto breastmilk – flavours change (and babies apparently like garlic).

So, this quote says breastfeeding will do good things for your children regardless of obesity, so keep breastfeeding children and it might prevent obesity. Isn’t it enough that breastfeeding dramatically strengthenes a child’s immune system, brain development, and early growth? Why do they feel the need to claim it prevents obesity. Incidentally, I was breastfed until I was 28 months and the only time I missed shool in elementary was when I got chicken pox which I got over in three days ; oh yeah, and I’m fat. My sister was breastfed for only six weeks and while thin, got every infection that came down the elementary school pipeline. Now, she’s not thin because she wasn’t breastfed, but I do have a stronger immune system because I was. How can any mother not think that’s a good enough reason to breastfeed?

Well, Oprah’s favorite book at the moment tells its readers that looking at fat people will make them fat. So it’s only logical.

I have always had eating issues and am still dealing with disordered eating. But I have to say I am thrilled to see my kid eat when she’s hungry, stop when she’s not, and eat what she wants to eat without guilt. Yeah, sometimes she wants broccoli and popcorn for dinner, but most of the time she’s eating more balanced than I am. I breastfed her – not in hopes that she would be skinny but because it was something I believed in and enjoyed doing.

And Sporty not menstruating? So not surprised.

“Perhaps we need to devise new kinds of calorie-limiting diets that don’t make people feel deprived, because the hard fact is that they should never stop dieting.”

Dieting makes us fatter, but we should never stop dieting.

My head hurts.