Moms: Your Kids are What You Eat

One of the greatest marvels—one could argue the greatest marvel—of the faith is the supernatural, Christ-given ability to transform regular, natural, and temporal things into everlasting glory.  It is truly astounding, for this outer-worldly ability begins in a moment, at a fixed place Jesus calls BORN AGAIN.  John 3:3:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

At this place called BORN AGAIN, the individual enters by repenting of their sins to the Father, and believing upon the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, to wash them clean.  Here, the participant is forgiven and clean in the sight of God and quickened (made spiritually alive) by the Holy Ghost.  Here, we become new creatures and the process of our eternal life begins.  The Scriptures speak of our condition prior to this transformation, and say we were dead in trespasses and sins.  Ephesians 2:1:

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:  

Surely, God has taken that which is temporal, dead, and doomed and transformed it into eternal glory.  From dead and worthless, we are transformed into eternal sons and daughters of God—and truly, it can’t get any bigger than this. 

Can you imagine that, as a child of God, I eat unto His glory; I sleep unto His glory; and I work unto His glory—all temporary things and they are transformed by the power of my childlike faith from temporal dust unto everlasting glory.  It is not even possible to comprehend the full magnitude of such wondrous thoughts. 

Have you yet to be BORN AGAIN—born a very real second time, this time of the Spirit of God?  In a moment, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you follow me from your heart, everything will start anew for you.  All of your sin and its shame will be expunged from your record.  All of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken—and truly, the bigger, the better.  In just a moment, you will be BORN AGAIN.  God will become your heavenly Father, your new name will be recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you will enter into a new and eternal purpose, and the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus will be yours.  Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto “Further with Jesus”  for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 49:25:

Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

GOD SAID, Psalm 22:9:

But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother''s breasts.

GOD SAID, Isaiah 28:9:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

MAN SAID: Follow the science! The world’s great universities will show us the way!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1068 that will once more certify the supernatural inerrancy of God’s Holy Bible.  All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as bait by the fishers of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

Thank you for visiting.  May your joy be full.

When I gave my life to Christ over fifty years ago, it was not because science discovered that there were fish fossils on all the world’s mountain peaks and my doubts of Noah and his flood were gone.  It was not that microbiology discovered that all the world’s people have the same common mother and father, just like the Bible proclaims.  No, my proof was of a much higher—even the highest—level.  The BORN AGAIN’s proof of God and their new birth into the family of God is of the Holy Ghost himself, and not a product of natural analysis. Romans 8:15-17:

15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Our proof sits far above natural analysis, but it is comforting to see man’s academic pursuits certifying the inerrancy of God’s perfect Word found in your Authorized King James Version, even if inadvertently or reluctantly.

I Corinthians 4:2:

Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 

Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defines steward: “A man employed in great families to manage domestic concerns, superintend the other servants, collect the rents or income, keep the accounts….”  When God created mankind, they were given dominion—stewardship—over all of His creation.  Genesis 1:26:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Man was given stewardship over the earth and its domestic affairs.  The faithful steward will honor and care for the things God has created and put under his charge, but alas! In the world’s halls of wisdom, such is not the case.  According to carnal science, the marvelous earth, its universe, and all the astounding lifeforms found within, were not created by God.  Rather, all of these wonderful, awe-inspiring creations just exploded out of nothing.  It was an accident! According to carnal science, we were not made in the very image and likeness of God, but instead evolvedfrom some mysterious, inert, primordial slime by happenstance—just an accident!  From their perspective of unrighteousness (unbelief), creation is viewed not as a masterpiece of God, but as an evolving accident which their great creative skills must save.  The situation is 180° out: Instead of the marvelous handiwork of God, unbelievers see an accident.

The Word of God gives explicit instructions to the stewards through commandments, precepts, and examples of how to successfully conduct our stewardship.  God’s instructions address all of life’s issues, from the proper respect for the earth to plant and animal husbandry, hygiene, diet, family structure, societal concerns, health, punishment, and more. These Words of instruction found in the Bible have been thoroughly disrespected, disregarded, and discarded and the resulting consequences have been very dire. 

GodSaidManSaid has published several features concerning God’s directives, declared through design and instruction, regarding breast-feeding.  Man’s heavy resistance to God’s instructions have created untold human damage.  The following information is from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “A Mother’s Breast Keeps on Giving:”   

I am compelled to preface this article on the subject of breast-feeding with this note to mothers, who for reasons such as adoption, various medications harmful to the child via the mother’s milk, mothers who are HIV positive, or other reasons, that God is more than able to supply your child’s needs.  Be sure of this one thing: God is fully aware of your inability to fulfill His directive concerning the matter of breast-feeding.  Pray over your baby’s formula and food before feeding your child and you can be confident that God will supply that which is lacking. 

Man said that baby formula concocted by science was equal to or even superior to mother’s breast milk.  Starting in the late 1940s, breast-feeding began to fall out of favor nationally.  By the 1950’s, infant formula gained widespread endorsement from the pediatric community and breast-feeding for millions of children and mothers became a thing of the past. 

Fewer than half of American babies are fed exclusively breast milk during their initial stay at the hospital.  When the infants reach the age of six months, only 19% receive breast milk and, at the ripe old age of one year, only 2%.  Now, compare that with the global average of children being weaned from the breast at 4.2 years.  The American Academy of Pediatrics now weighs in with the recommendation that, for the baby’s optimal health, a mother should breast-feed for at least a full year.  The benefits of breast-feeding for mother and child are staggering.  The list is long and ever-increasing.

A growing body of evidence now shows that DHA, which is a fatty acid, is the essential structural ingredient of breast milk.  DHA is lacking in infant formula due to a ban by the FDA. Follow the science…right?  The ban has now been lifted on DHA in infant formula, but be assured that formula will not duplicate that which is in mother’s milk.  The following is a quote from Dr. William C. Douglass on the subject of DHA:

Breast-fed babies have an IQ of six to 10 points higher than formula-fed babies.  Scientists and nutritional experts attribute this to DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid that’s an essential structural component of the brain and retina.  It’s found naturally in mother’s milk. 

During the last trimester of pregnancy is when the mother transfers to her baby much of the DHA needed for the development of his or her brain and nervous system.  The DHA content of the mother’s diet reflects in the amount of DHA passed on to the baby.  If the baby is not breast-fed at all, it also receives no DHA after birth and is shortchanged in neurological development, thus impairing mental and visual acuity. 

I found the following excerpt written by Dr. R. D. Russell especially exciting.  It reads as follows:

The cells in the mother’s milk not only attack bacteria that may be harmful to the baby, but apparently they have the ability to produce antibodies that destroy bacteria and viruses as well.  Evidently, the infant who is exposed to infections and nurses from its mother also produces changes in the mother’s breast.  Within hours, the next milk contains antibodies and immunoglobins to protect the baby before the infant exhibits visible symptoms.

An article in the publication called Mothering points out that mother’s milk has 400 nutrients that cannot be duplicated in a lab.  Research suggests that breast-feeding reduces the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, childhood cancer, diarrheal diseases, lower respiratory illness, ear infections, bacterial infections, diabetes, infant botulism, Crohn’s Disease, ulcerative colitis, and cavities.

The following paragraphs are from Health Daily News. The title of the October 29, 2008 report is, “Breast-Fed Baby May Mean Better Behaved Child:”

Add yet another potential benefit to breast-feeding:  Fewer behavioral problems in young children.

Parents of youngsters who were breast-fed as infants were less likely to report that their child had a behavior problem or psychiatric illness during the first five years of life, a new study found. 

Previous research has shown that breast milk offers numerous benefits for babies and that breast-feeding can benefit both mother and infant.  Babies who are breast-fed are less likely to suffer from ear infections, diarrhea, pneumonia, wheezing, and bacterial and viral illnesses, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).  Research has also linked breast-feeding with a reduced risk of obesity, diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and certain cancers, according to the AAP.

For mothers, breast-feeding helps the uterus quickly return to its pre-pregnancy shape and helps burn additional calories, which can help get rid of extra pregnancy weight, the AAP reports.  Additionally, breast-feeding is believed to help nurture the mother-child bond.

The new study reviewed more than 100,000 interviews of parents and guardians of children between the ages of 10 months and 18 years who participated in the National Survey of Children’s Health. 

The following short paragraph is from USA Weekend:

You probably know that breast-feeding boosts a baby’s health.  But, who knew how dramatically it benefits a mother?  I didn’t until I read a new Swedish study of 18,326 women, showing that mothers who breast-fed infants for 13 months or more were about half as apt to develop rheumatoid arthritis as those who did not breast-feed.  Breast-feeding for one to twelve months reduced RA risk 26%.  There’s more:  A large analysis last year concluded that breast-feeding also might protect mothers against type 2 diabetes and breast and ovarian cancer.  [End of quote]

In a December 2006 issue of Science News, under the title “Milk Therapy,” the following paragraphs were found:

When scientists started analyzing breast milk, they found that the third-largest constituent of breast milk, making up about 1 percent by volume, is a mixture of indigestible sugars known as oligosaccharides.  Many of these sugars occur only in human milk. 

Initially, the scientists thought that these were useless by-products of milk production.  But why would mothers expend so much energy creating compounds that their babies can’t use? 

Unlike the antibodies that mothers pass along to their infants through breast milk, oligosaccharides can protect the baby from pathogens to which the mother has never been exposed. 

For a pathogen to infect a person via the digestive tract, it first has to latch on to the sugars that line the gut wall.  Oligosaccharides have binding sites that are identical to the ones on the gut-wall sugars, so the pathogens attach to the oligosaccharides instead of to the lining of the gut.  Once bound to oligosaccharides, pathogens travel harmlessly through the intestinal tract.

Lactoferrin is a dazzling multitalented protein.  In breast-fed babies, it can appropriately suppress inflammation or boost immune activity.  It also fights viruses, bacteria, and fungi.  Even after the protein has broken down in the gut, the fragments fight urinary-tract infections as they are expelled from the body. 

Because lactoferrin lowers the immune system’s inflammatory overreactions, it may be useful against arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and septic shock.

The many claims for lactoferrin’s capabilities “may look suspicious,” admits Michal Zimecki, an immunologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Wroclaw.  Lactoferrin “seems like a golden bullet, but it really is so.” [End of quote]

June 25, 2013, the headline in LiveScience reads, “Breast-fed children more likely to climb the social ladder.” 

The October 26, 2015 feature written by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is headlined, “The Miracle of Breast Milk Elixir is Lifesaver.”  Several paragraphs follow:

What if there were a remedy that could save more children’s lives in the developing world than are claimed by malaria and AIDS combined? 

A miracle substance that reduces ear infections while seeming to raise scores on IQ tests by several points?  Available even in the most remote villages, requiring no electricity or refrigeration?  Oh, and as long as we’re dreaming, let’s make it free. 

This miracle substance already exists.  It’s breast milk.  Current estimates backed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF are that optimal breast-feeding would save 800,000 children’s lives a year in developing countries.

That would amount to a 12 percent drop in child mortality, a huge gain. 

Infants who are not breast-fed are 14 times more likely to die than those who are exclusively breast-fed, according to a major metastudy just published by ActaPaediatricia, a pediatrics journal. 

Worldwide, only 43 percent of babies are put to the breast within an hour of birth, as recommended by the World Health Organization.  One reason for delays is suspicion of colostrum, the first, yellowish milk, which doesn’t look quite like milk but is packed with nutrients and antibodies; it’s sometimes called the “first immunization.” 

While the clearest benefits of breast-feeding have to do with saving lives, there is also some evidence of other health and cognitive gains.  In Belarus, children of women randomly assigned to exclusive breast-feeding promotion scored six points higher on IQ tests than controls. [End of quotes]

Note the correlation in IQ and the Creator’s declaration in Isaiah 28:9:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

The headline from the June 14, 2016 feature in The Telegraph reads, “Breastfeeding Helps Premature Babies’ Hearts to Grow, Study Finds.”  Excerpts from the feature follow:

The hearts of babies born early are often smaller than full term babies, with smaller chambers, thicker walls, and reduced function.

It is thought that those abnormalities occur in the first few months after birth, so scientists at Oxford University wanted to find out if breast feeding made a difference to development. 

They invited back 102 adults who had been enrolled in a study of premature babies in 1982 to check how their hearts had developed as well as recruiting an extra 102 people who were born preterm. 

Those who had been breastfed had ventricles—the large chambers in the heart—which were nearly 10 percent larger than bottle-fed babies.  The hearts of breastfed babies also beat more strongly.

“Even the best baby formula lacks some of the growth factors, enzymes, and antibodies that breastmilk provides to developing babies,” said Dr. Adam Lewandowski and colleagues at the Oxford Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility. 

Previous studies have found that babies who were breastfed for at least twelve months have higher IQs and could earn an extra £200,000 ($280,000 US) in their lifetime compared with bottle-fed youngsters. 

Viv Bennett, Chief Nurse at Public Health England, said: “This research adds to a wealth of evidence which shows that breastfeeding gives babies the best start in life, and it comes with a whole host of benefits for mothers, too.”  [End of quotes]

More breast-feeding’s praise was published August 28,2020 by Science Daily.  Excerpts from the feature titled “The ‘Gold’ in Breast Milk” follow:

Breast milk strengthens a child’s immune system, supporting the intestinal flora.  These facts are common knowledge.  But how does this work? What are the molecular mechanisms behind this phenomenon?  And why is this not possible the same way with bottle feeding?  The reasons were unknown until a team from the RESIST Cluster of Excellence at Hannover Medical School (MHH) recently discovered how alarmins are that mechanism in a project involving the University of Bonn.  The results have been pre-published online in the medical journal Gastroenterology.

“Alarmins are the ‘gold’ in breast milk.  These proteins prevent dangerous intestinal colonization disorders that can lead to blood poisoning and intestinal inflammation,” relates Team Leader Professor Dr. Dorothee Viemann of the Hannover Medical School (MHH) Clinic for Pediatric Pneumology, Allergology and Neonatology. [End of quote]

When God’s Word is mocked and neglected, the curse is the result.  We know this because inherent within every commandment of God is a blessing or a curse.  Because the Word of God is true and righteous altogether, obeying yields the blessing of doing the right thing.  Because the Word of God is true and righteous altogether, disobeying yields the curse of doing the wrong thing.  It is just that childlike simple. Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

It’s just that simple. 

Who is responsible for all the misery, death, and billions of abbreviated lives?  From the womb to the table, and to all of this life and onto forever, God’s Word is the perfect, inerrant, supernatural, and unchanging TRUTH.  JUST DO IT!  [End of quotes]

The benefits of obedience are eternal.  The December 16, 2020 headline of Science Daily reads, “Maternal Diet During Lactation Shapes Functional Abilities of Milk Bacteria.”  Excerpts from this feature follow:

Research has shown that human milk is the optimal nutrition source for neonates and infants.  It confers protection against both immediately life-threatening infant diseases such as necrotizing enterocolitis, as well as later-onset diseases in adults, like obesity, diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease.  Scientific evidence suggests that what a mother eats while she is breast-feeding can modulate the beneficial composition of the mother’s milk, but the underlying mechanisms involved have not been elucidated.

In a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, and other institutions describe a natural mechanism that can modify the benefits of maternal milk. They report the first evidence that the mother’s diet while breast-feeding can shape the profile of human milk oligosaccharides (HMO), a type of complex carbohydrate in the mother’s milk.  Changing the HMOs, which are food and fodder for healthy microbes, in turn modifies the functional abilities of the milk microbiome.  It has been proposed that the establishment of a healthy microbiome in the newborn and infant influences lifelong metabolic health.

“We found that distinct maternal carbohydrate and energy sources in the diets we provided preferentially altered the milk concentrations of HMOs, and this was accompanied by changes in the metabolic capacity of the milk microbiome,” said first author Dr. Maxim Seferovic, instructor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor working in the Aagaard lab.  “It is not that the maternal diet itself is directly affecting the microbes, but that the diet affects the microbe’s food, the HMOs, which in turn shape the functional capacity of the community of microbes in the milk that will be consumed by the baby.  Interestingly, the changes in HMO occurred quickly, in a matter of 2 to 3 days, after the mother’s changed their diet.”

“We propose that our findings can have potential effects on baby’s health and development, including the potential for promoting healthy gut integrity at the mucosal surface. HMOs feed certain microbial communities, and it has been suggested that the establishment of those microbial communities is probably important for neonatal development of brain function,” said co-author Dr. Melinda Engevik, postdoctoral fellow in pathology and immunology at Baylor.  “We speculate that having certain HMOs promotes the growth of certain microbes in the milk, which then pass to the baby and may promote healthy development.”

“One other exciting aspect of our study is the suggestion that HMOs seem to preferentially affect the growth potential of microbes that may also impart health risk or benefit for the mother.  For instance, by shaping the community of microbes in the milk in ways that may favor the growth of certain beneficial microbes via the simultaneous exclusion of those that cause mastitis during breast-feeding,” Aagaard said.

If not treated with antibiotics, mastitis, or the painful inflammation of breast tissue that typically involves an infection, prevents breast-feeding and can become a serious condition. [End of quotes]

Again from Science Daily, the feature “Breast-Feeding Linked to Higher Neurocognitive Testing Scores in Offspring” was published April 27, 2021.  The feature reads in part:

New research finds that children who were breast-fed scored higher on neurocognitive tests.  Researchers in the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) analyzed thousands of cognitive tests taken by nine- and ten-year-olds whose mothers reported they were breast-fed, and compared those results to scores of children who were not.

“Our findings suggest that any amount of breast-feeding has a positive cognitive impact, even after just a few months,” stated Daniel Adan Lopez, Ph.D. candidate in the Epidemiology program, who is first author on the study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.  “That’s what’s exciting about these results.  Hopefully from a policy standpoint, this can help improve the motivation to breast-feed.”

Hayley Martin, Ph.D., a fourth-year medical student in the Medical Scientist Training Program and co-author of the study, focuses her research on breast-feeding.  “There’s already established research showing the numerous benefits breast-feeding has for both mother and child.  This study’s findings are important for families particularly before and soon after birth when breast-feeding decisions are made.  It may encourage breast-feeding goals of one year or more. It also highlights the critical importance of continued work to provide equity focused access to breast-feeding support, prenatal education, and practices to eliminate structural barriers to breast-feeding.”

Researchers reviewed the test results of more than 9,000 nine- and ten-year-old participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.  Variations were found in the cumulative cognitive test scores of breast-fed and non-breast-fed children. There was also evidence that the longer a child was breast-fed, the higher they scored.  [End of quote]

The empirical data is in and those who have followed and are following yesterday’s science have and will reap what they have sown.  I assure you, it is not what they had in mind.

When God places His endorsement on anything, run and embrace it.  God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, a place to build a life that will last forever.

GOD SAID, Genesis 49:25:

Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

GOD SAID, Psalm 22:9:

But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother''s breasts.

GOD SAID, Isaiah 28:9:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

MAN SAID: Follow the science! The world’s great universities will show us the way!

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

“Breast-Feeding Linked to Higher Neurocognitive Testing Scores in Offspring,” Science Daily, April 27, 2021

“Maternal Diet During Lactation Shapes Functional Abilities in Milk,” Science Daily, December 16, 2020

GodSaidManSaid, “A Mother’s Breast Keeps on Giving”

 

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