News article

Expert panel on cancer recommends exclusive breastfeeding

November 1, 2007

A joint report issued last month by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Cancer Research Institute has incorporated breastfeeding as one of its pillars of recommendation to prevent cancer. Like all major medical authorities, the report recommends exclusive breastfeeding for about six months. The report recommends continued breastfeeding after six months, with complementary feeding in accordance with UN Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding. Significantly, it notes that “policies and actions designed to prevent cancer need to be directed throughout the whole life course, from the beginning of life.”

The panel states that “there is no completely adequate substitute” for human milk. On a public health level, the report recommends “mothers to breastfeed; children to be breastfed.” The recommendations come from “convincing” evidence that breastfeeding by the mother lowers her “risk of breast cancer at all ages thereafter.” The report describes the quality of the evidence on breastfeeding and breast cancer as “strong and consistent”, and that there is a plausible biological mechanism.

The Panel also judges that sustained breastfeeding probably protects infants and young children against overweight and obesity, which tend to track into later childhood and adult life. Because of “convincing evidence” that body fatness is one cause of colorectal cancer, breastfeeding is recommended on this basis also.

The breastfeeding recommendations also come as part of other bold nutritional recommendations to prevent cancer, such as “Eat mostly foods of plant origin,” and “Limit intake of red meat and avoid processed meat.” Such recommendations are in contrast to the more mild recommendations from US Department of Agriculture, which has been widely criticized for to succumbing to influences from the powerful meat and dairy industries.

The report is available here.

Reference

World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research. Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective. Washington DC: AICR 2007