Abstract
BackgroundFew studies in recent years have demonstrated the effect of maternal diet on fatty acid composition of human milk.MethodsFourteen free-living lactating women participated in a cross-over dietary intervention study, consuming a low fat diet (17.6% of energy as fat, 14.4% of energy as protein, 68.0% of energy as carbohydrate) and a high fat diet (40.3% of energy as fat, 14.4% of energy as protein, 45.3% of energy as carbohydrate) each for periods of 4 days, in randomised order. Each mother was her own control. Mature milk samples were collected during each period and analysed for medium and long chain fatty acids.ResultsThe concentration of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA), was 13.6% in breast milk for the low fat diet compared to 11.4% for the high fat (p < 0.05). Arachidonic acid (C20:4n-6) levels were significantly higher in breast milk when women consumed the low fat diet. Increased dietary intake of stearic acid (C18:0) and alpha-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3) on the high fat diet significantly increased proportions of these fatty acids in breast milk (p < 0.05) in 4 days.ConclusionsChanging maternal dietary fat intake has a rapid response in terms of changes to fatty acids in breast milk.
Highlights
Few studies in recent years have demonstrated the effect of maternal diet on fatty acid composition of human milk
This study investigated the effect of physiologic dietary fat intake of free-living Canadian lactating women on the fatty acid composition of medium and long chain fatty acids in mature breast milk
Since medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) intake in g/day was higher in the high fat than in the low fat period, these significant changes in MCFA concentrations suggest that de novo fatty acid synthesis may be altered rapidly when the fat content of the maternal diet is changed and that four days is a long enough period to assess changes in breast milk fatty acid composition [2,3]
Summary
Few studies in recent years have demonstrated the effect of maternal diet on fatty acid composition of human milk. Maternal diet has been shown to influence fatty acid composition of breast milk, with changes appearing within 8-10 hours after a meal is consumed [1,2,3]. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of short term dietary manipulations of low and high fat diets on the milk fat content and fatty acid content of mature human breast milk in a sample of free-living Canadian women, and to determine the effect of dietary fat content on medium chain fatty acids (MCFA), and long chain fatty acids (LCFA) linoleic, alinolenic, docosahexaenoic and arachidonic acids in mature breast milk
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