Breastfeeding duration is associated with offspring's adherence to prudent dietary pattern in adulthood: results from the Nutritionist's Health Study.

Little is known about the long-term effect of breastfeeding on dietary habits. We examined the association between breastfeeding duration and adherence to current dietary patterns of young women. This was a cross-sectional analysis of 587 healthy women aged ≤45 years, undergraduates or nutrition graduates. Maternal characteristics and breastfeeding duration [<6; 6-<12; ≥12 months (reference)] were recalled. Diet was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire and patterns were identified using factor analysis by principal component. Adherence to patterns was categorized in tertiles; the first (T1 = reference) was compared to T2 + T3 (moderate-to-high adherence). Logistic regression was performed considering the minimal sufficient adjustment recommended by the directed acyclic graph. Median age was 22 (interquartile range (IQR) 20; 27) years and body mass index (BMI) 22.2 (IQR 20.4; 25.0) kg/m2. The four dietary patterns identified (Processed, Prudent, Brazilian and Lacto-vegetarian) explained 27% of diet variance. Women breastfed for <6 months showed lower chance of moderate-to-high adherence to the Prudent pattern (odds ratio (OR) = 0.53, p = 0.04). Breastfeeding was not associated with the other patterns. Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was directly associated with moderate-to-high adherence to the Processed pattern (OR = 2.01, p = 0.03) and inversely to the Prudent pattern (OR = 0.52, p = 0.02). Higher adherence to the Brazilian pattern was associated with proxies of low socioeconomic status and the Lacto-vegetarian pattern with the opposite. Confirmation in prospective studies of the association found in this study between breastfeeding with the Prudent pattern in adult offspring could suggest that early feeding practices influence long-term dietary habits, which could then affect the risk of nutrition-related diseases.