The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends continuing exclusive breastfeeding after introducing complementary foods for around two years. This recommendation is made for the first six months of an infant’s life. For premature infants, human donor milk (DHM) is chosen if mother milk is not available.
There has been a recent trend in Westernized nations among women of reproductive age toward adopting vegetarian diets. The availability of information on the content of these women’s milk is sometimes limited.
Because premature neonates have higher nutritional needs, it’s important to evaluate the nutritional value of DHM and the variables impacting its composition.
Concerning the study
Researchers compared the nutritional makeup of Spanish vegetarian/vegan women’s breast milk to that of donor DHM in the current cross-sectional and observational investigation.
From August 2017 to February 2020, participants were recruited for the study from pediatric primary care clinics, websites, online forums, and grocery stores.
The veg group consisted of healthy vegan or vegetarian moms who had been nursing for 3.0 weeks postpartum, as opposed to the donor group, which included omnivorous diet consumers with full-term children who gave milk 1.0 times in the previous two months to the Regional Human Milk Bank (RHMB).
To determine the fatty acid (FA) profiles and mineral and vitamin content, 92, 20, and 20 donor and vegan group members, respectively, provided blood, urine, and milk samples.
The team also looked at the lipid profiles of polar and neutral lipids, triacylglycerols, and relative phospholipid content in human milk derived from sample populations of the two groups. In order to evaluate diets, 5.0-day
