Can breast milk ingredients promote intestinal health? Why?

Although babies have been fed for thousands of years, we still know little about the magic of human breast milk. An unknown factor is that the composition of milk will change according to the mother's diet and environment, which will indirectly affect the baby's health. Now, after carefully studying the ingredients of human milk and mouse milk, researchers report that one ingredient, an amino acid named betaine from whole grain food, can improve long-term metabolic health by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria in the intestines of newborns.

Secondly, healthy breast-feeding is not only beneficial to the supplement of beneficial bacteria in infants' intestines, but also plays an important role in establishing good microecological relief, providing nutrition for beneficial bacteria in the intestines, and even effectively preventing the breeding of pathogenic bacteria. The related research reports of foreign dairy products found that oligosaccharides (the second sugar after lactose) contained in breast milk can not be absorbed as nutrition, but can provide nutrition for beneficial bacteria in the intestine and play an important role. The healthy development of children's intestinal flora is related to the contact and intake of probiotics from outside, and also to the intestinal environment. Nutrients such as oligosaccharides in breast milk can be used to establish the intestinal flora of children. Providing good nutrition and environment, there is a unique beneficial bacteria-Bifidobacterium infantis in the intestine of newborns, which can promote the intestinal tract to produce an enzyme, which will further decompose glycoprotein in breast milk into oligosaccharides, providing nutrition for this bacteria and other intestinal beneficial bacteria.

Thirdly, the proportion of Bifidobacterium in the intestines of breast-fed infants is usually high, because Bifidobacterium is good at metabolizing carbohydrates in breast milk, such as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), so it is in a competitive position in the intestines of infants. Moreover, some studies even isolated live Bifidobacterium strains from breast milk [2], which shows that breast milk not only affects the composition of intestinal bacteria through nutrients, but also can directly deliver probiotics to infants.

Fourth, in a word, breast-feeding can enhance the immunity of infants, and breast milk has anti-intestinal infection and anti-allergic effects. Breast milk contains lactoferrin, which can inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli and Candida albicans and reduce the occurrence of intestinal diseases. Breast milk contains bifidus factors, which can promote the growth of lactic acid bacteria, inhibit colorectal cancer bacteria and reduce intestinal infection. Breast milk contains lactic acid bacteria, enzymes, complements and oligosaccharides. It can prevent intestinal and systemic infections in children.