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Original Research Communications |
1 From the Department of Paediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
2 Supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada.
3 Address reprint requests to SM Innis, BC Research Institute for Children's and Women's Health, 950 West 28th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 4H4, Canada. E-mail: sinnis{at}unixg.ubc.ca.
| ABSTRACT |
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Objective: We sought to determine the relations between trans and cis unsaturated fatty acids in milk and plasma phospholipids and triacylglycerols of breast-fed infants, and to identify the major maternal dietary sources of trans fatty acids.
Design: We collected milk from 103 mothers with exclusively breast-fed 2-mo-old infants, blood from 62 infants, and 3-d dietary records from 21 mothers.
Results: Mean (±SEM) percentages of trans fatty acids were as follows: milk, 7.1 ± 0.32%; infants' triacylglycerols, 6.5 ± 0.33%; and infants' phospholipids, 3.7 ± 0.16%. Milk trans fatty acids,
-linolenic acid (18:3n-3), arachidonic acid (20:4n-6), docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3) (P < 0.001), and linoleic acid (18:2n-6) (P = 0.007) were each related to the same fatty acid in infant plasma phospholipids. Milk trans fatty acids were inversely related to milk 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3, but not to milk or infant plasma 20:4n-6 or 22:6n-3. trans Fatty acids represented 7.7% of maternal total fat intake (2.5% of total energy); the major dietary sources were bakery products and breads (32%), snacks (14%), fast foods (11%), and margarines and shortenings (11%).
Conclusions: There were comparable concentrations of trans fatty acids in the maternal diet, breast milk, and plasma triacylglycerols of breast-fed infants. Prepared foods were the major dietary source of trans fatty acids.
Key Words: Arachidonic acid trans fatty acids docosa-hexaenoic acid human milk breast-fed infants breast milk plasma lipids n-6 fatty acids n-3 fatty acids
| INTRODUCTION |
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-linolenic acid (18:3n-3). trans Fatty acids are well absorbed and are incorporated into tissue lipids, although predominantly into triacylglycerols rather than into phospholipids (8, 9). Estimates of average daily intakes by adults in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia based on food usage, food-frequency questionnaires, or duplicate portion analysis range from
3 to 17 g/person (8, 1014). Considerable evidence from published studies shows that the proportions of fatty acids in human milk are influenced by the trans, n-6, and n-3 fatty acid composition of the maternal diet (1517). The composition of fatty acids in breast milk consumed by young infants is of concern because of the important roles of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids in infant growth and development (1820). Some studies have noted an inverse relation between concentrations of trans fatty acids in fetal or infant tissue and measures of growth (57). It has also been suggested that inverse associations between trans fatty acids and arachidonic acid (20:4n-6), as well as the ratio of 20:4n-6 to 18:2n-6, reflect inhibition of desaturation of 18:2n-6 to 20:4n-6 (57). Although some animal and in vitro studies are consistent with the hypothesis that trans fatty acids may interfere with the desaturation of 18:2n-6 (4, 21, 22), it is possible that diets high in trans fatty acids are also low in all-cis n-6 and n-3 fatty acids.
Several studies have documented the presence of trans fatty acids in human milk (15, 16, 2326), with concentrations possibly higher in Canada (25) than in Europe (23, 24, 26). Whether high milk concentrations of trans fatty acids result in high trans fatty acids and reduced 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:4n-6, or docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3) concentrations in the plasma lipids of breast-fed infants has not been clearly established. The objective of this study, therefore, was to determine in
100 breast-feeding mothers and their term infants the relations between all-cis n-6 and n-3 and trans fatty acid concentrations in the mothers' milk and in the plasma phospholipids and triacylglycerols of the breast-fed infants.
| SUBJECTS AND METHODS |
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Methods
Samples of breast milk (60100 mL) were collected from all the women during the course of a feeding, at approximately the midpoint of the feeding, on the same day that the infants' blood samples or the mothers' 24-h dietary recalls were collected from subjects in the subsets providing this information.
The mothers who provided dietary information were interviewed by a nutritionist, who recorded their food intake for the preceding 24 h on the day when samples were collected. The 24-h dietary recall was used to train the mothers in how to keep a 3-d weighed food record. The importance of recording in detail the methods of food preparation, recipes, and brand names for all foods eaten was emphasized. The 3-d food records were completed during the following week, returned by mail, and reviewed by the nutritionist.
Venous blood samples were collected from the infants (n = 62) 23 h after a feeding, as close as possible to the anticipated time of the next feeding. Plasma was separated by low-speed centrifugation (2000 g x 15 min at 5°C) immediately after blood collection. Milk and plasma samples were stored at -70°C until analyzed. The milk samples were thawed in ice-cold water and were directly transmethylated to avoid potential losses of medium-chain saturated fatty acids (27).
The infants' plasma total lipids were extracted and then the triacylglycerols, phospholipids, and cholesteryl esters were separated by using thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The lipid fractions were recovered and the fatty acids were converted to their respective methyl esters (28) for separation by gas chromatography (GC) with a Varian 3400 gas chromatograph (Varian Canada Inc, Mississauga, Ontario), as described by Chen et al (25), that used an SP-2560 capillary column (100 m x 0.25 mm internal diameter, 20-µm film thickness) (Supelco, Bellefonte, PA). The CV of the GC method for the milk and infant plasma triacylglycerol and phospholipid fatty acid analyses was <1%. The GC procedure that we used does not separate all possible trans and cis-trans positional isomers (25, 29). Therefore, for the purposes of this report, concentrations of trans, cis-trans, and unusual cis positional isomers of the naturally occurring cis unsaturated fatty acids were calculated by summation and designated as total trans fatty acids.
The 3-d food records were analyzed to determine the average daily intake of total energy, fat, and trans fatty acids for each individual by using the FOOD PROCESSOR program (version 7.02; ESHA Research, Salem, OR), modified to include the total fat and fatty acid contents of
300 specific brand name food products, which were analyzed in the present study.
Statistical analysis
The significance of any relation between the concentration of a given fatty acid in milk and the concentration of the same fatty acid, or other fatty acids, in the infants' plasma triacylglycerols or phospholipids was examined by using correlation analysis for the results of matched analyses for milk and infants' plasma. The relations among the concentrations of trans fatty acids, 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:4n-6, and 22:6n-3 in the milk samples were similarly explored by using correlation analysis. A P value
0.05 was considered significant. Because the fatty acid concentrations were not normally distributed, the data were logarithmically transformed before statistical analysis. All statistical analyses were performed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 7.5; SPSS Inc, Chicago).
| RESULTS |
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100 women who were all at a similar stage postpartum and were all exclusively breast-feeding their infants. Whereas mean percentages of 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:4n-6, and 22:6n-3 were 12.1%, 1.4%, 0.4%, and 0.2% of the total fatty acids, respectively, individual values varied widely among the women; eg, from 6.0% to 21.5% for 18:2n-6, from <0.1% to 4.1% for 18:3n-3, from 0.2% to 0.8% for 20:4n-6, and from 0.1% to 2.6% for 22:6n-3. Similarly, whereas the mean concentration of total trans fatty acids was 7.1%, the concentrations varied from 2.2% to 18.7% of milk fatty acids among the 103 women studied. The results (Table 1
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Major dietary sources of trans fatty acids
Mean (±SEM) concentrations of the major saturated and unsaturated fatty acids were not significantly different between the mothers who provided 3-d weighed dietary records and the mothers who did not (data not shown). Total trans fatty acids in the milk of women who provided dietary records was 8.0 ± 0.80% (range: 3.418.7%) of total fatty acids. Fat represented
31.8% of the total daily energy intake (
: 10496 ± 597 kJ) with a range of 12.144.8% of daily energy (27.7140.6 g) from fat among the mothers who provided dietary records (Table 4
). Two of the 21 mothers reported that they ate no meat, fish, shellfish, or eggs and 1 mother reported no meat or eggs but did eat fish during the 3 d for which records were kept. Nine of the 21 mothers had at least one serving of fish or other seafood. The estimated daily intake of trans fatty acids was 6.87 g/person, representing
7.7% of total fat and
2.46% of daily energy intake. Of the total trans fatty acid intake,
78% (5.34 g/d) was derived from prepared and processed foods, with the major sources being bakery products such as cakes, cookies, pies, and muffins (
22% of daily trans fatty acid intake), snack foods (
14.4%), fast foods (
11.1%), and breads and rolls (
10.5%). Margarines contributed
11.1% of daily trans fatty acids, but this varied widely among the mothers. The use of tub (soft) margarines as a table spread or in cooking ranged from 0 g fat/d (n = 9) to 23.64 g fat/d.
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| DISCUSSION |
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40% lower than that in plasma triacylglycerols, possibly because we collected blood samples when infants were in the fed state and because of the specificity of the acyltransferases involved in phospholipid synthesis. Similarly, the percentages of 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:4n-6, and 22:6n-3 in human milk were each significantly related to the percentage of the same fatty acid in the infants' plasma triacylglycerols and phospholipids. The percentage of trans fatty acids in milk was inversely related (P < 0.05) to the percentages of 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3 in milk. Similar inverse relations between trans fatty acids and 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3 in milk were noted previously (25). It is possible that women with high intakes of foods containing hydrogenated oils have lower intakes of all-cis 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3, either from salad and cooking oils or from margarines.
Similar to our study, another study found a range for trans fatty acids in human milk of 0.117.2% (
: 7.2%) for breast-feeding women in different regions of Canada (25). However, studies in Spain (n = 38) found mean concentrations of
1% trans 18:1 (23), whereas milk from women in France (n = 10) had
2% (range: 1.23.0%) trans fatty acids (24) and milk from women in Germany had a median of 4.4% (range: 2.26.0%) trans fatty acids (26). The intake of hydrogenated fats and oils in baked and other prepared foods may possibly be higher in Canada than in Europe.
In contrast with our results, Chen et al (25) found an inverse relation between trans 18:1 and cis 18:1n-9 in Canadian human milk. One explanation for the lack of a relation between trans fatty acids and cis 18:1n-9 in our study may be incomplete separation of trans 18:1 from cis 18:1n-9 by GC. Studies using partially hydrogenated margarines and synthetic unsaturated fatty acids have shown 930% overlap of t-18:1
12 to t-18:1
16 with cis 18:1 in GC with 100-m capillary columns, with the degree of overlap dependent on the total trans fatty acid content (29). The most prevalent isomer of 18:1 in human milk is t-
11 (23% 18:1 isomers), followed by t-
10 (20%) and t-
9 (16%), with smaller amounts of t-
12 and t-
13. Similarly,
43% of 18:1 trans isomers in cow milk fat are t-18:1
11, with low proportions of other isomers (25, 29). Our analysis did not include separation of 18:1 isomers (eg, by AgNO3 -TLC) before GC. However, because the most common 18:1 isomers in hydrogenated vegetable oils are t-
11, t-
10, and t-
9, with relatively small amounts of t-
12 to t-
16, it seems probable that any overestimation of cis 18:1n-9 (or underestimation of trans fatty acids) was relatively small. Indeed, comparison of direct GC and AgNO3-TLC followed by GC of milk fatty acids showed mean (±SD) cis 18:1n-9 values of 32.7 ± 3.2% and 30.6 ± 2.7%, respectively, and total trans 18:1 values of 4.6 ± 2.0% and 5.9 ± 25% total fatty acids, respectively, with no differences in cis n-6 and n-3 fatty acids with the 2 methods (25). A more probable reason for the lack of a relation between milk trans fatty acids and cis 18:1n-9 was that the major food sources of trans fatty acids in the study were bakery products, snacks, and fast foods. It seems probable that in these foods, trans fatty acids replaced saturated fats (eg, butter, lard, or saturated vegetable oils) rather than cis 18:1n-9rich margarines or oils.
In contrast with previous studies (57), we found no association between trans fatty acids and 20:4n-6 or 22:6n-3 in milk or plasma phospholipids or triacylglycerols of breast-fed infants. Chen et al (25) also found no differences in the percentages of 20:4n-6 or 22:6n-3 in human milk samples grouped as milks with low (<4%), medium, or high (>10%) percentages of trans fatty acids. In our study, the percentages of 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3, but not of trans fatty acids, in milk were significantly related to the percentages of 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3, respectively, in the infants' plasma lipids. It may be that intakes of preformed 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 are a more important determinant of milk and blood lipid 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 than are any potential effects of inhibition of 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3 desaturation by trans fatty acids. Some, but not all, studies have reported a relation between blood lipid 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 concentrations of young infants and measures of growth and visual development, respectively (19, 20). Whether the wide ranges of concentrations of 20:4n-6 (8.115.8%) and 22:6n-3 (2.28.0%) in the plasma phospholipids of breast-fed infants have any physiologic significance regarding growth or development is not known. However, because 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 are found in animal but not plant foods, mothers with higher 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 concentrations in their milk are likely to have intakes of animal, fish, and egg protein that are different from those of women with lower milk 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 concentrations. This suggests that a detailed analysis of nutrient intakes of a larger group of women than our sample is needed to investigate any potential relations of maternal diet to infant growth and development.
Our results also showed a relation between CLA concentrations in milk and in the plasma lipids of breast-fed infants. CLAs are positional and geometric isomers of 18:2n-6 that occur naturally in several foods, particularly dairy products and beef, and that appear to have biological activity (30, 31). In contrast with other trans fatty acids, CLAs were preferentially accumulated, by
2-fold, in the infants' plasma phospholipids rather than in triacylglycerols. Animal studies have also suggested possible tissue specificity for CLA (32). Whether CLAs have any physiologic effects on breast-fed infants is not yet known.
Craig-Schmidt et al (16) found that the concentration of trans 18:1 in milk increased from 1.8% to 6.5% of total fatty acids in 8 women when trans 18:1 in the diet increased from 1.0% to 11.8% of fatty acids. Using the equation generated in that study (16) to describe the relation between the percentage of trans 18:1 in the milk and in the diet, Chen et al (25) estimated daily trans fatty acid intakes of 7.7%, 3.9%, and 1.1% of total energy (equivalent to 20.3, 10.1, and 3.0 g, respectively) for Canadian women with high, medium, and low concentrations of trans fatty acids in their milk. Our analysis of 3-d diet records estimated a mean (±SEM) trans fatty acid intake of 6.9 ± 1.1 g/d (range: 1.310.9 g/d), representing
2.5% of energy intake and 7.7% of total fat intake. The finding that the mean (±SEM) percentage of trans fatty acids in milk (7.1 ± 0.3%) was similar to that calculated for the diet suggests that the estimated value of 6.9 g trans fatty acids/d is a reasonable estimation of the trans fatty acid intake of the women in this study. The major food sources of trans fatty acids for the women in our study were bakery products, snacks, and fast foods, with margarine and shortening contributing only
11% of the mean daily trans fatty acid intake (0.76 g). Similarly, data for the United States suggest that breads, cakes, cookies, snacks, and fried foods are likely to be major, although variable, sources of dietary trans fatty acids (8).
Numerous studies have shown that human milk fatty acids, particularly monounsaturated, n-6, n-3, and trans fatty acids, change in response to changes in maternal dietary intake (1517). Concerns about dietary fat and health or lifestyle issues that alter maternal food choices may therefore influence the quality of fatty acid nutrition of breast-fed infants. It is particularly important to note that our results identified baked and prepared foods and breads as major sources of trans fatty acids, providing
50% of the total trans fatty acid intake but <20% of the total fat intake. The lack of labeling regarding fat composition and the possibility that many of these foods may be perceived as healthy in the context of lower-fat diets warrant consideration.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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