Abstract
Human milk is influenced by maternal habitual diet, yet we do not fully understand the short-term effects of dietary variations on breast milk macronutrient concentrations. This study aimed to determine if increasing sugar and fat consumption would impact breast milk protein, lactose and lipids. Nine mothers who were exclusively breast-feeding consumed three diets; a control, a higher fat diet and a higher sugar diet at least 1 week apart. Breast milk samples were collected hourly and analysed for concentrations of protein, lactose, triglycerides and cholesterol. Breast milk triglycerides responded to both intervention diets with significantly higher concentrations in comparison to the control diet (p < 0.001). Cholesterol concentrations increased more in response to the higher sugar diet than the higher fat diet (p < 0.005). Lactose concentrations increased in response to the higher fat diet (p = 0.006), and protein decreased in response to the higher fat diet (p = 0.05). Variations in breast milk composition were observed over the day with triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations highest at the end of day (p < 0.001), and lactose and protein concentrations peaking at hour 10 (p < 0.001). Manipulating maternal consumption of fat and sugar impacted concentrations of human milk triglycerides, cholesterol, lactose and protein. Fluctuations were also seen in milk macronutrients in response to time of day.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, E.W., B.S.M., M.J.E., M.J.N., G.E.L., and S.C.L.-E., methodology, E.W., and N.Y.; investigation, E.W.; data curation, E.W., and N.Y.; writing, E.W., B.S.M., M.J.E., and S.C.L.-E. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
The research was funded by the University of Nottingham-University of Adelaide joint PhD programme.
Institutional Review Board Statement
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee of The University of Nottingham (protocol code 191-1901, 14 February 2019).
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement
Data from this study will be archived in the University of Nottingham Repository (https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com) on the completion of EW's PhD studies following the 4 January 2024 and will also be available through the University of Nottingham eTheses database (https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/etheses/).
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).