Milk Fatty Acids and Infant Cognitive Development (Part I)
Last week USA TODAY highlighted two papers from Pediatrics indicating that “ higher levels of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) were linked to greater mental development in both young and older children.” But is that what the studies showed? Yes and no- it turns out that the devil is in the details . Some background: DHA, for example, is an omega-3 fatty acid that is a critical structural component of the brain. DHA, and other LCPUFA naturally occur in mother’s milk and are ingested by the infant during critical periods of neurodevelopment. The prediction is therefore that more fatty acids equals better neurodevelopment equals better cognition. Studies making links in this chain have influenced companies to include fatty acids in infant formulas starting about a decade ago. The first paper, by Isaacs et al. 2011, reports an experimental study in which pre-term infants were randomly assigned to either a standard formula diet or a fatty acid enhanced formula diet. Inte