| ■ Breast Milk Sugars Support Beneficial Gut Bacteria In Infants | 2010.08.06 |
| Complex sugars in breast milk support bacteria that coat the lining of an infant's intestine and protect against noxious bacteria, according to U.S. researchers. It was long believed that these complex sugars, which constitute up to 21 percent of breast milk but cannot be digested by babies, had no biological significance, The New York Times reported. But the University of California, Davis researchers found that a beneficial strain of bacterium -- a subspecies of Bifidobacterium longum -- has a special set of genes that enable it to break down the complex sugars in breast milk. This researchers said this strain of bifido is not found in adults, The Times reported. |