An Avocado Intervention to Increase the Nutrients in Human Milk in Support of Infant Cognitive Development
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Summary
The goal of this interventional study is to establish a whole food, avocado, as a viable study material to supplement mothers and infants with nutrients that support optimal brain development. Eighty-eight breastfeeding dyads, 3m postnatal, will participate in this study designed to: 1. To document whether lactating mothers will comply in the consumption of 5 avocados a week for 12 weeks. 2. To ascertain the choline, lutein, and fatty acids present in human milk in women who eat avocado. 3. To measure the cognitive advantage conferred to infants whose mothers consume avocados while breastfeeding compared to a non-avocado-eating reference group. To this end, healthy, lactating women who are 13 weeks postpartum and their infants will be enrolled. Mothers will be provided avocados on a bi-weekly basis and will be asked to consume an avocado a day. Infant cognition will be tested when the infants are 4.5 and 6 months of age. Milk samples and diet data will be collected and assayed on a bi-weekly basis.
Description
Nutrients do not appear in nature alone with some appearing together more often than not. It is reasonable to posit that nutrients are working together, and thus, the synergies among the nutrients are important to understand. First, choline is integral to brain fatty acids in that phosphatidylcholine (PC) serves an active role in mediating hepatic export of fatty acids to extra-hepatic tissues such as brain: fatty acids are stored in the liver, and PC moves them to the brain. Erythrocyte PC-DHA is integral to our consideration of a potential mechanism behind our results. Enriched in docosahexa…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–40 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria * Healthy lactating women at 13 weeks postpartum * Planning to exclusively breastfeed to 6 months of age * Gave birth at 38 weeks or greater gestation without remarkable incident * Pre-pregnancy BMI \<30 Exclusion Criteria * Gestational diabetes * Infant with diagnosis or documented suspicion of developmental delay * Any documented seizure activity in infant * Family history of avocado, latex, or banana allergies
Interventions
- Dietary SupplementAvocado
Intervention arm
Location
- Nutrition Research InstituteKannapolis, North Carolina