The sugar in Mom’s milk makes the “good” bacteria grow

Breast milk – Mother Nature’s perfect food…..

But for who ?

Breast milk is definitely filled with all the nutrients a developing human needs. But, not all the nutrients that are packaged in this SUPERFOOD are things that junior can use.

Breast milk is not just feeding baby, but baby and friends.

These friends are the key to health – making the “right” friends, protects from many troublesome health problems, including allergies and obesity down the line.

Food glorious food

The “baby unfriendly” ingredients in human breast milk is a group of complex sugars, collectively referred to as the oligosaccharides. These sugars appear floating freely in the milk, as well as in a form where they are attached to proteins, known as glycoproteins.

Human babies don’t come with a set of enzymes able to use these sugars.

But several species of bacteria living in the human gut, can eat the free sugars.

A team from UC-Davis wondered if some of these bacteria, were also able to chow down on the sugars (glycans) attached to human proteins.

NOTE : The sugar structure of human proteins is unique to humans – we always have the following pattern, Man3GlcNAc2(?1–6Fuc) of sugars on our N-glycosylated proteins. Every animal has their own special sugar code.

Special enzymes for special bacteria

The researchers discovered that many of the bacterial species associated with the human gut, have the ability to eat these unique human sugars.

The special skill arises because the bacteria have the Endo-ß-N-acetylglucosaminidase enzyme. The enzyme appeared in several gut bacteria of the Bifodobacterium family.

Being able to chow down on these unique sugars, should give these Bifidobacterium the edge inside the human gut.

And this is good news, Bifidobacteria, are among the good guys.

Give the good guys a break

The gut is a tough neighbourhood – there good guys and bad guys, fighting it out for the a piece of the action. It is a numbers game.

Cultivating the good guys is a good health move – these little guys are key to good body chemistry.

Mother Nature has formulated breast milk so that it helps the good guys get a head start in the gut. So if you can………….. feed baby and friends the BEST for BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY that will last a lifetime.

Endo-N-acetylglucosaminidases from infant-gut associated bifidobacteria release complex N-glycans from human milk glycoproteins. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics (2012) 11:775-785. Daniel Garrido, Charles Nwosu, Santiago Ruiz-Moyano, Danielle Aldredge, J. Bruce German, Carlito B. Lebrilla and David A. Mills.  

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Further reading

Breast milk includes a powerful anti-retroviral	Mother Nature’s milk blend changes on the hour	In the big scheme of things the human brain is a meat eater

The 7 Big Spoons™…. are master switches that turn health on.

Balance Eicosanoids	Rein in insulin	Dial down stress	Sleep !	Increase Vit D	Culivate microflora	Think champion

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