--- title: Breast-Feeding May Protect Against Type-2 Diabetes description: Infants are not the only one to gain from breast milk canonical: https://time.com/4125599/breast-feeding-diabetes/ author: Tara John article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-24T14:58:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:52:32.831Z article:section: Health og:title: Breast-Feeding May Protect Against Type-2 Diabetes og:description: Infants are not the only one to gain from breast milk og:url: https://time.com/4125599/breast-feeding-diabetes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4adc49807112db4c/69887290ab6d772ddc6a74b8/breastfeeding.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Mother breast-feeds baby og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Breast-Feeding May Protect Against Type-2 Diabetes twitter:description: Infants are not the only one to gain from breast milk twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4adc49807112db4c/69887290ab6d772ddc6a74b8/breastfeeding.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Breast-Feeding May Protect Against Type-2 Diabetes by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Nov 24, 2015 2:58 PM UTC  Mother breast-feeds baby Mother breast-feeds babyRicardo Dias—EyeEm/Getty Images by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Nov 24, 2015 2:58 PM UTC A study has found that breast-feeding may help women who have gestational diabetes from becoming lifelong diabetics. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, monitored women who had developed gestational diabetes during pregnancy for two years after birth. Their study, which was published in the [Annals of Internal Medicine](http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2471594) on Monday, found that their risk of developing Type-2 diabetes was cut by half the longer they breast-fed, [reports the New York _Times_](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/23/breast-feeding-is-good-for-mothers-not-just-babies/?%5Fr=1). “Pregnancy is a metabolic challenge,” Erica P. Gunderson, the study’s lead author, told the New York _Times_. Glucose levels are lower during lactation and there is less demand for insulin. “One of the possible biologic explanations is that this gives the woman’s pancreatic beta cells a bit of a break, allowing for recovery from the demands of pregnancy.” The results come at the heels of [findings published late last month](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26504151), which found that breast-feeding may help protect women from hormone receptor negative tumors— an incredibly aggressive type of breast cancer. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4125599/breast-feeding-diabetes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4125599/breast-feeding-diabetes/"},"headline":"Breast-Feeding May Protect Against Type-2 Diabetes","datePublished":"2015-11-24T14:58:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:52:32.831Z","description":"Infants are not the only one to gain from breast milk","url":"https://time.com/4125599/breast-feeding-diabetes/","keywords":["Pregnancy","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4adc49807112db4c/69887290ab6d772ddc6a74b8/breastfeeding.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4adc49807112db4c/69887290ab6d772ddc6a74b8/breastfeeding.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mother breast-feeds baby","caption":"Mother breast-feeds baby","creditText":"Ricardo Dias—EyeEm/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/pregnancy/","name":"Pregnancy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4125599/breast-feeding-diabetes/","name":"Breast-Feeding May Protect Against Type-2 Diabetes"}}]}] ```