Eating a diet that contains plenty of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) can increase the levels of beneficial fatty acids in breast milk, scientists have revealed.
CLAs are a group of fatty acids that are thought to have health benefits, including possible reductions in heart disease risk.
A team at the University of New Hampshire gave nursing mothers cookies made with CLA-enriched butter to see how long it took for dietary CLA to appear in their breast milk.
They found that breast milk from women who ate CLA-enriched cookies had significantly higher levels of CLA than that from women who ate regular cookies.
Breast milk contained the most CLA eight to 28 hours after the mothers ate CLA-enriched cookies.
The researchers, whose findings are published in the journal Nutrition Research, concluded: "Despite its small size and other limitations, this pilot study suggests that CLA appearance in human breast milk can be increased by an acute ingestion of a CLA-rich food in the maternal diet."
CLA can be taken in the form of supplements, which are particularly beneficial for vegetarians whose diet contains little naturally-occurring CLA.
Eating a diet that contains plenty of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) can increase the levels of beneficial fatty acids in breast milk, scientists have revealed.
