Fatty acid composition of breast milk fat from women in Curacao - abstract

ABSTRACT

The new-born infant exclusively breastfed receives approximately 52 percent of his energy from fats, 40 percent from carbohydrates and approximately 8 percent from proteins. Dietary fat in young infants not only serves as the most important source of energy but also contains nutrients essential for normal growth and development of the nervous system. In the very young infant, intestinal absorption of fats is, among other factors, dependent on the fatty acid composition of the fat consumed. The nature of the fat consumed by the mother will have an important influence on the fatty acid composition of human milk fat. Samples were obtained from 47 mothers of low to middle social class, who had lived in Curacao for at least 10 years, and given birth to a normal term infant. Milk was collected at least 14 days after birth by manual expression, and deep frozen until analysed by gas chromatography. The relative concentration of the saturated fatty acids (g/100g total fatty acids) were C60, 0.1; C80, 0.7; C10.0, 3.2; C120, 11.7; C140, 9.8; C160, 16.8; C180, 4.8 and for the unsaturated fatty acids C141, 0.2; C161, 2.5; C181, 26.7; C182, 18.3; C18.3, 1.7; C202, 0.5; C203, 0.6; C204, 1.4; C225, 0.3 and C226, 0.6. This pattern is more similar to that found in Tanzanian women, than to that found in women in Great Britain (AU)