While breast milk is best, some mothers are unable to produce sufficient quantities of milk, or the process is too painful, or the mother elects not to. Here formula milk is used. Generally formula milk is not as beneficial, because it’s thought that the contribution that the mother makes to the baby’s microbiome and here the composition of the gut microorganisms has been tied to good and bad health.
Can formula milk be made better? The answer appears to be yes. A new study suggests that cow’s milk could provide an inexpensive and ready source of key prebiotics needed for a healthy baby gut microbiome.
Breast milk contains oligosaccharides (a type of carbohydrate) that acts like a prebiotic. These encourage the growth of a baby’s gut bacteria.It seems that cow’s milk contains similar beneficial compounds.
Researchers based at University of California at Davis have discovered oligosaccharides in cow’s milk the encourage the development of a bacterium called Bifidobacteria longum infantis. This bacterium keeps harmful pathogens at bay by out-growing them. However, to maximize the benefit from cow’s milk it needs treatment with an enzyme. It should be possible to do this, and then extract the oligosaccharides and add them to formula milk.
The research is published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, in a paper titled “Oligosaccharides released from milk glycoproteins are selective growth substrates for infant-associated bifidobacteria.”
