How Special is Human Breast Milk? Part II
Part I discussed that humans, and primates in general, produce low fat milk relative to other mammals. But wait! Humans tend to pride ourselves on our big brains, strutting our mental muscles on the boardwalk of evolution (suck it frog!). And long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) in milk are implicated in neurodevelopment and cognition. This suggests that that even if human milk is low fat, there must be something special about that fat, right? Right?!? Maybe, but not in the way you think. Lauren Milligan and Richard Bazinet compared the fatty acid profiles of the milk 16 species of primates (representing 81 individuals!). According to Milligan and Bazinet, “humans are not unique in our ability to secrete LCPUFA in milk, but are unique in our access to dietary LCPUFA.” Captive primates eat food that is commercially manufactured from agricultural ingredients, including animal proteins. And fatty acid profiles in human and captive primate milk look very similar because