Breastmilk article in Chemical and Engineering News

[medaroge]

Article about the components of breast milk, and how scientists dont fully understand it.

Unraveling Breast Milk
Analytical scrutiny reveals how complex fluid nourishes infants and protects them from disease

WHEN IT COMES to feeding infants, the mantra is "breast is best." A diet of breast milk for babies is correlated with benefits including less diarrhea as well as lower incidence of diabetes or asthma when compared to formula-fed babies. But precisely how breast milk confers those advantages is unclear. Scientists know the basic ingredients of breast milk but don't fully understand how exactly they work to provide optimum nutrition for infants and protect against disease
......
Much still remains to be understood about how many of milk's natural components are synthesized and delivered, how synthesis is controlled, and the effects of the mother's diet on the final product. "It is a remarkable fluid," German emphasizes. "It's extremely embarrassing how little we still know about it."

[star*mora]

interesting read! thx for sharing it

[*MamaJen*]

Cool article, but I sort of knew it would include elements like this:

"Formula for healthy infants could also be redesigned to include oligosaccharides that promote the growth of bacteria found in breast-fed babies; right now, formula-fed infants tend to develop colonies of more "adultlike" intestinal microbes in their digestive tracts."
and
"Newburg, Ruiz-Palacios, and Morrow have started a Massachusetts-based company, Glycosyn, to engineer bacteria and yeast to synthesize human milk oligosaccharides to provide material for prebiotics or infant formula."

[go0ber]

interesting. i linked it to my dh who is studying bioengineering.

[13pumpkins]

I love that you linked this. We get this (it seems nobody else does outside our field) and I was thrilled when I pulled it out of the mailbox!