One of the many benefits of breastfeeding is that breast milk has and introduces our babies to cholesterol.
wait??!! isn’t that bad?? Nope, not at all, and this is why….
Cholesterol basics:
It is an organic molecule, that occurs naturally, with the most familiar type of animal sterol being cholesterol
Biosynthesized by all animal cells because it is an essential structural component of all animal cell membranes that is required to maintain membrane structural integrity.
Cholesterol is necessary for the formation of brain cells, according to a study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute.
Many degenerative diseases in the brain, including Alzheimer’s disease, are linked with imbalances of brain cholesterol.
Cholesterol is essential for the formation of the myelin sheath. A fatty material that encompasses the long portions of nerve fibres. Myelin insulates nerve cells and enhances the passing of electrical signals throughout your nervous system’s circuitry.
So why is it in breast milk? The cholesterol a baby is exposed to in breast milk teaches the body how to adapt to cholesterol later in life and therefore improves a child’s cholesterol levels later in life. It is the building blocks for our nervous system, it is essential for our ability to hold and use memories and our ability to learn. Even sleep plays a very important role in that when we sleep our body’s cholesterol synthesis increases and is directly related to how we adapt to our newly learned skills. All of which plays a pretty significant role in our growing little people.
Much Love.