3 ms·

How much sugar is in an equivalent amount of breast milk?

• troyvit 2y ago
  It's not just how much but what kinds. According to this paper[1] there's about 1g - 2.5g of lactose and 30 other oligosaccharides per 100 ml of breast milk depending on if it's colostrum or mature milk. I don't know how that compares to how much sugar Nestle puts in, but the mix of different sugars and the timing of their introduction are helpful in regulating the baby's gut flora. I doubt the same can be said for just straight up sucrose and honey. [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/392766/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/392766/
  • xanthor 2y ago
    It's difficult to ascertain whether the Nestlé milks exceed the 7% carbohydrate content of breast milk that study establishes since the linked report only describes grams of sugar per serving, without defining the size of a serving. I'm sure honey is not equivalent to the sugars in breast milk in terms of suitability for an infant, but it's not clear to me that reducing the carbohydrate content would necessarily be better if breast milk wasn't available.