Amino acid composition of lactating mothers’ milk and confinement diet in rural North China

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the amino acids composition of lactating mothers' milk and their confinement diet in a town in Northern China, as well as to assess the relation of amino acids content in human milk and diet. Forty lactating mothers age 19 to 35 years participated in the study. They were 4 to 180 days postpartum. A 24-hour dietary recall was done and amino acids content of maternal milk was analyzed. The main findings are as follows: (1) The protein content of human milk is 1.58 g/dL and the ratio of EAA to NEAA is about 1:2. The most abundant amino acids in human milk are GLU (16.0%), PRO (10.2%), LEU (8.67%) and the lowest two are MET (1.76%) and TRP (0.91%). (2) The diet contains enough energy and protein, but lacks vitamins A, B and C, indicating that it is a characteristic confinement diet. Grain and eggs are the main source of protein, and soy and fish were consumed less frequently. (3) Amino acids composition in diet and milk are similar; and the correlation of the amino acids patterns between diet and milk is 0.989, demonstrating that the amino acid composition of diet is the foundation of that in human milk. However, almost no relation is found between the amino acids concentration in maternal diet and milk, suggesting that the amino acids content of the diet does not have a direct relation with that of human milk.