Milk’s Structural Dynamics: Nutrient Delivery System

In this presentation, Bruce German pulls together much of the research that was presented at the 90^th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop, and highlights the discussion points to help professionals think differently about milk. 

He notes that mother’s milk is not a single fluid - it is an evolving source of nutrition throughout the lactation period.  At our core, humans are lactating mammals, and the foundation of mammalian milk is the transfer of fat from the mother to the offspring. 

The composition of milk is guided by maternal nutrition and the metabolic state and we now know enough to start taking advantage of that knowledge by taking it into new areas of research.  But much still is unknown about breastmilk.  We can analyse a lot of the world around us, but mothers have no access to knowing if their milk is high or low quality. Milk is a signaling system – we are beginning to understand this, and to put mechanistic detail to this discovery.