Fatty acid composition of mature breast milk in Brazilian women

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Maurício H.L.
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Silva, Marco Túlio C., Brandão, Sebastião C.C., Gomes, José C., Peternelli, Luiz A., Franceschini, Sylvia do C.C.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2004.09.026; http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/21396
• topic: Human milk; Fatty acid composition; Brazilian women

This work analyzed the fatty acid composition of mature milk samples, weekly obtained from eight Brazilian women between the 4th and 13th lactation weeks. A questionnaire was weekly applied to observe their eating habits. Saturated fatty acids constituted 39.7% of the total fatty acids. De novo fatty acids and long chain saturated fatty acids presented levels of 15.9% and 23.8%, respectively. trans-Fatty acid content was very low (2.36%). Unsaturated fatty acids constituted 50.9% of the total fatty acids, with over half being monounsaturated fatty acids (27.6%). Polyunsaturated fatty acids showed levels of 23.3%, with high linoleic and α-linolenic acid contents (20.3% and 1.43%, respectively). Arachidonic acid had a content of 0.53%, while docosahexaenoic acid content was 0.14%, values considered adequate for the needs of breast-fed infants.