A study on lipid content and fatty acid of breast milk and association with mother's diet composition

The aim of our study was to determine the content of fat and fatty acid composition of breast milk and the association with the mother’s diet. This cross-sectional study was conducted among pregnant mothers who came to health care centers for last prenatal care in Isfahan, Iran. Eight to 72 hours after delivery, 2 to 5 ml of colostrum was collected by hand into tubes. They were kept in an ice box and sent within half an hour to the collaborating health centre for freezing at -20°C until analysis, which was performed at the laboratory of NNFTRI in Tehran. The milk samples were homogenized by Vortex (Heidolph Vortex Shaker REAX 1. 220 V. 30 W Germany) at 2400 rpm for 30 sec. The data of 86 out of 91 samples were complete. The mean maternal age and gestational age was 28.37 ± 5.55 years old and 38.7 ± 1.2 weeks, respectively. The content of fat was 2.17 ± 1.22 g/100 ml breast milk. Arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4n-6) and docosohexaanoic acid DHA (22:6n-3) made 0.8 ± 0.4% and 0.3 ± 0.2% of total fatty acids. Although the AA/DHA ratio in our study is suitable, but the content of DHA is nearly low. Dietary habits of women in reproductive age group should be improved, with special emphasis on the fatty acid content of breast milk. This may have long-term impact on health promotion and disease prevention.