Abstract
Recommendations for infant formulas (IF) had been established on the basis of human breast milk composition, still considered as “the gold standard”. Historically, till the 20th century, cow milk-based formulas have been used to feed infants when breast feeding was not possible. Later, infant formulas based on cow’s milk proteins but only vegetable oils blends as lipid source became the usual rule in most countries. However, considering“the gold standard”, a lot of changes occurred since the sixties that considerably modified lipid composition of human breast milk which is correlated to the diet of the mothers, who increased their consumption of n-6PUFA to replace saturated fat considered as proatherogenic. This introduced an imbalance in the ratio of linoleic/alpha-linolenic acids (18:2n-6/18:3n-3), limiting the bioconversion to long-chain-n-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3). Compared to pure vegetable blends and following the usual recommendations for IF, linoleic (LA 15% of total fatty acids), alpha-linolenic acids (ALA 1.5%) and LA/ALA ratio (10), the use of dairy fat blend was beneficial in terms of brain DHA accretion in young rats and a further increase of brain DHA was obtained by using pure dairy fat (LA 2%, ALA 0.8%, LA/ALA 2.3). Cow’s milk presents naturally some similarities (lipid quality, cholesterol, globule structure…) with human breast milk and cannot be compared to pure vegetable blends. Utilization of dairy fat in infant formula should be reconsidered, as well as the absolute amount of polyunsaturated LA and ALA: at least a reduction of LA for IF as well as for lactating women to improve breast milk quality.
Highlights
Lipids are essential in early life for human brain and vision development: among lipids, n-3PUFA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) accumulate in human brain essentially from 30 wk of gestation to 5 years-old children
Some changes occurred since 60 years by the increase of n-6 intake of mothers inducing an imbalance in the breast milk n-6/n-3 ratio which have shown some defavorable effect on LCn-3 which are necessary for the early development, for the brain and for health later in life (Ailhaud et al, 2006; Rolland-Cachera, 2018)
It is proven that there is no need of an excess of n-6PUFA if a proper level of n-3PUFA is associated to the diet: “These results point out the actual overestimation of the physiological linoleic acid (LA) requirement questionable in human, and the importance to consider the presence of dietary ALA to set up recommendation, for LA and avoid LA
Summary
Lipids are essential in early life for human brain and vision development: among lipids, n-3PUFA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) accumulate in human brain essentially from 30 wk of gestation to 5 years-old children. Foetal and neonate brain DHA content is influenced by the variations in maternal n-3PUFA dietary intake during pregnancy and lactation (Guesnet et al, 2018) It has been demonstrated in the rat that the DHA status during the foetal period or in the young is not different if the mother is fed with the n-3PUFA precursor (alpha-linolenic acid, ALA: 18:3n-3) or with the preformed long-chain-n-3 (LCn-3): DHA via fish oil rich diet (Childs et al, 2011). Some changes occurred since 60 years by the increase of n-6 intake of mothers inducing an imbalance in the breast milk n-6/n-3 ratio which have shown some defavorable effect on LCn-3 which are necessary for the early development, for the brain and for health later in life (Ailhaud et al, 2006; Rolland-Cachera, 2018). Dairy fat which was usually used to replace breast feeding could be a healthy alternative to pure vegetable formulas to regulate this excess of n-6 and to optimize the infant formula lipid quality
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