Phytochemicals in breast milk and their benefits for infants

Abstract

Exclusive breastfeeding is widely recommended at least during the first 6 months of life and breast milk (BM) composition depends on maternal diet. Phytochemicals, including polyphenols and carotenoids, are recognized by their powerful antioxidant activities being present in BM. This review provides an overview of BM composition with respect to polyphenols and carotenoids evaluating its possible benefits for the infant. Polyphenols do not have any body deposit and their content in BM depends on regular dietary intake from mothers and bioavailability of them, while carotenoids content in BM changed depending on factors including stages of breastfeeding, maternal diet and maternal health status. Preeclampsia, overweight or obesity are conditions able to reduce polyphenols and carotenoids in BM by using them as antioxidants. For both polyphenols and carotenoids, the supplementation slightly enhances their BM content. Few studies have shown the presence of phytochemicals in infant plasma and still remains unclear the benefits that polyphenols and carotenoids provide for development of infants. Further studies using long-term, randomized and controlled designs are necessary to determine the relation between carotenoids, polyphenols and its potential benefits for early childhood.

Keywords:

• Carotenoids
• polyphenols
• infant
• breastfeeding
• supplementation
• antioxidant

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

J. Ríos and V. Valero-Jara wrote the manuscript and created tables. S. Thomas-Valdés supervised and revised the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID) under Grant 11190762 (Fondecyt de Iniciación); and by Desarrollo de una plataforma Interdisciplinaria para la Innovación en Salud: Un Referente Internacional en el Desarrollo de Medicina de Precisión under Grant PMI UVA 1402.