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National Documentation Centre (NDC)

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding reduces risk disease (The Times of India-28 July 2010)

Melbourne: If a new research is to be believed, then negative attitudes to breastfeeding may have
contributed to a rise in chronic disease in Australia. Dr Julia Smith, from the Australian National
University (ANU), and colleagues set out to assess the public health significance of premature weaning of
infants from breast milk on the risk of chronic illness later in life. The study mapped the public health
impact of premature weaning over the past five decades in Australia. The researchers found that even
now, very few Australian babies are breastfed to six months. “Depending on how we measure exposures
for different types of chronic disease, more than one in ten Australians will face heightened risk in later
life because they were not breastfed, Dr Smith said.