Let us have it right between the eyes. Our present diet is not
optimal in producing the best breast milk for a developing infant.
Our diets hardly optimal anyway in view of the obesity epidemic.
A short review of artificial baby formulas will also make you choke
and it is obvious that they need to be rethought and reformulated in
order to provide flexibility to the mother.
The maternal diet needs to be completely rethought and certainly
needs to include ample fish and fish oils.
The researcher here makes a link in regards to lower school scores,
but that is more a problem of culture and support and inept teaching
approaches.
Yet it cannot be dismissed out of hand that our diet is impacting
learning which it certainly is. The main culprit is surely excess
wheat in particular which has come to dominate our food intake beyond
what is safe as well as sugar of course. Hyperactivity is a result
of just this.
Anthropologists
Finds High Levels of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Breast Milk of Amerindian
Women
ScienceDaily
(June 9, 2012) — Working with researchers at the University of
Pittsburgh and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, anthropologists at
UC Santa Barbara have found high levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty
acids in the breast milk of economically impoverished Amerindian
woman as compared to women in the United States.
Their research appears
in the current issue of the journal Maternal and Child
Nutrition.
The study compared
breast milk fatty acid composition in U.S. and Tsimane women. The
Tsimane live in Amazonian Bolivia, and eat a diet consisting
primarily of locally grown staple crops, wild game, and freshwater
fish. Samples of Tsimane mothers' milk contained significantly
higher percentages of the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid
(DHA), which is crucial for infant cognitive and visual development.
Additionally, the
percentages of DHA in breast milk did not significantly decrease
across the first two years postpartum, the period during which infant
brains experience peak growth and maximal uptake of DHA. This was
also true for the U.S. women, and the study suggests that extended
breastfeeding by both U.S. and Tsimane mothers may provide infants
with a constant source of DHA during the critical period of brain
development.
"The fatty acid
composition of breast milk varies with the fatty acid composition of
a mother's diet and fat stores. Ancestral humans likely consumed
omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in equal proportions," said
Melanie Martin, a doctoral student in UCSB's Department of
Anthropology, and the study's lead researcher. "Tsimane mothers'
omega-6 to omega-3 ratios were four to one, much closer to the
ancestral estimates than observed in U.S. Women."
Unfortunately, the
ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in industrialized diets varies from 10 to
1 to as high as 20 to 1. This is most likely due to the absence of
fresh fish, and regular consumption of processed foods and vegetable
oils rich in linoleic acid (an omega-6), as well as trans fats.
These high levels of omega-6 have been linked to increased risks of
obesity, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease, and interfere with
the synthesis of DHA and other omega-3 fatty acids.
"The Tsimane
mothers' average milk DHA percentage was 400 percent higher than that
of the Cincinnati mothers, while their average percentages of
linoleic and trans fatty acids were 84 percent and 260 percent lower,
respectively," said Martin. "Despite living in economically
impoverished conditions, Tsimane mothers produce breast milk that has
more balanced and potentially beneficial fatty acid composition as
compared to milk from U.S. Mothers."
The study comes in the
wake of the May 21 issue of Time magazine, which reignited debate
over the appropriate age at which a child should top nursing. "Buzz
about the recent Time magazine cover missed the point," noted
Steven Gaulin, professor of anthropology at UCSB, and one of the
study's co-authors. "The American diet is eroding one of the
most important benefits breast milk can provide -- fats that are
critical to infant brain development. It's not surprising that,
among developed nations, American children are last on international
tests of math and science."
The study's findings
highlight important questions about infant formula, the fatty acid
content of which is based on the breast milk of U.S. mothers. "The
study suggests that standards of fatty acid composition for infant
formulas should be derived from populations such as the Tsimane,"
Martin explained. "And nutritional recommendations for infants
should account for the prolonged requirements of fatty acids that
breast milk naturally provides."
Also contributing to
the study was Michael Gurven, professor of anthropology at UCSB.
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