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The Effect of Dietary Fat on Butyrate, Medium Chain and Long Chain Fatty Acids in Human Breast Milk

Date

1997

Journal Title

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Type

Degree Level

Masters

Abstract

Butyric acid is a 4 carbon short chain fatty acid (SCFA) produced in the human colon as a result of microbial fermentation of carbohydrates. The colonic epithelial cells utilize butyrate as a source of energy and it may be protective against colon cancer. Butyrate is also found in human breast milk and is produced de novo in the breast by the process of fatty acid synthesis. Research in the area of SCFA in breast milk is negligible whereas research on medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) and long chain fatty acids (LCFA) profiles in breast milk has been extensive. MCFA and LCFA are easily manipulated by the amount and type of fat in the mother's diet. The purpose of this study was to confirm the effect of changing dietary fat on MCFA and LCFA and to determine the effect of changing fat on the butyrate content in breast milk. Fourteen free-living breast-feeding mothers, aged 24-37 years, were fed both a low fat (17.9% Fat, 69.2% CHO, 14.6% protein) and a high fat (41.0% Fat, 46.3% CHO and 14.8% Protein) for periods of four days each. The order of the diets was assigned at random. Mothers expressed hind milk samples on the last two days of each four day period. Samples were freeze distilled, freeze dried and then analyzed for butyric acid concentration in millimolar (mM) by gas chromatography(GC). The fat content of the hind milk was measured using a modified Folch procedure (Jensen et al. 1985). The total fat content of the breast milk samples during the low fat period was 5.4% ± 1.6 (SD) and 5.7% ± 1.6 (SD) on the high fat period (P=0.543). Butyric Acid was present in the breast milk when mothers ate the low fat diet and the high fat diet. The concentration of butyrate in the breast milk was 0.41 mM ± 0.15 (SD) on the low fat diet and 0.40 mM ± 0.14 (SD) on the high fat diet (P=0.788). The recovery rate of butyrate was 59%. The percent of butyrate in the fat of the breast milk was calculated and it was 0.067% ± 0.02(SD) for the low fat period and 0.064% ±0.02 (SD) for the high fat period (P=0.474). Derivatives of medium and long chain fatty acids were identified and quantified by GC in weight percent (wt%). The content of medium chain fatty acids, C10:0 and C12:0 was significantly higher on the low fat diet than the high fat diet. The weight percent of C10:0 was 0.87 ± 0.17 (SD) on the low fat diet and 0.68 ± 0.12 (SD) on the high fat diet (P=0.004). The weight percent of C12:0 was 5.38 ± 1.16 (SD) for the low fat diet and 3.98 ± 1.16 (SD) for the high fat diet(P=0.000). In conclusion, the study confirmed that changing the diet of breast-feeding mothers diet to a low fat, high carbohydrate diet increased the proportion of MCFA in breast milk. Butyrate was present in all milk samples, however the proportion of butyrate did not change with diet.

Description

Keywords

Butyric acid, breast milk

Citation

Degree

Master of Science (M.Sc.)

Department

Pharmacy and Nutrition

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DOI

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