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lindisfel

lindisfel

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Tim Noakes has said on number of occasions human milk is ketogenic, hence we have some keto children! Michael Mosely this am on mid week said breast milk had a lot of carbs , presumably he meant lactose! Cows milk tastes sweet to me. There appears to be a dichotomy here or the facts are being varnished in some way. I am intolerant to carbs and have an inappropriate glucose response but this does not mean we should (all the human race) go low carb based on an assumption that infants are in keto!? D.
 
Well if human breast milk is about 7% carb ( 7g per 100ml seems to be the consensus) and the average baby seems to have an intake of 750ML per day then the average baby has a carb intake (indeed in the form of lactose) of 53g of carb per day. Does this means that for people with regular metabolisms i.e. not Type 2 that about 50g of carbs per day could be classed as a ketogenic way of eating? Could well be.. it seems that even some Type 2's can be in ketosis with an intake of 50g per day although the figure of 20g per day is usually used I think because more people will be guaranteed to be in ketosis at this level.
So they could both be correct.
 
I've always wondered about the whole 'breast milk is ketogenic' idea.

But all I can do is offer questions, not answers.

- while being breastfed babies undergo MASSIVE growth but it is a different kind of growth, isn't it?
Babies are growing brains and everything else at the same time. Once we become adult, a lot of that growth fuel is un-needed, because all we really want to grow is muscle, once our brain and skeleton has finished growing.
So presumably, babies have very different macro-nutrient requirements from adults.

- the constituents of human breast milk change and vary a great deal over the course of the breast feeding period. They vary according to the times of day, the length of each breast feeding session, and within different ethnic groups. I have no idea whether there are variations according to the mother's diet, but it seems likely.

- different mammals have very different macro-nutrient balances in their milk.
Cows have nearly 4x the protein, and less fat
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=13
Humans have much less protein and more carbs, but that doesn't reflect energy expenditure, it reflects massive brain growth.
http://mostlymeatiswhatieat.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/what-can-we-learn-for-breast-milk-part.html
Presumably these different macro-nutrient balances are specifically designed/evolved to give the best start and the best opportunity to produce healthy adults of the species.

I would rather ask 'are breast fed human babies in ketosis?'
than ask 'is breast milk ketogenic (as understood when applied to adult human macro nutrient needs?)'
- they are two different questions.
 
@Brunneria

Just to answer your musing about human breast milk being affected by mother's diet - yes, it is.

My friend's baby was very poorly, and was being breast fed. It turned out she had a dairy intolerance of some sort and mother had to go on a total dairy free diet for the duration. The baby got better. Only one example, however.
 
well - mothers on low fat diets when feeding their infants cause their babies some distress. My grandmother's family were nurses and midwives, back in the bad old days - pre National Health Service and free vitamins and milk powder. I knew all about the symptoms of poor nutrition and rickets, tuberculosis and the like at a very young age.
I think that the use of ketogenic is possibly going the way of 'healthy' - it doesn't mean what it tries to imply.
 
So there is more carb in breast milk than fat and protein.
bulkbiker said:
Well if human breast milk is about 7% carb ( 7g per 100ml seems to be the consensus) and the average baby seems to have an intake of 750ML per day then the average baby has a carb intake (indeed in the form of lactose) of 53g of carb per day. Does this means that for people with regular metabolisms i.e. not Type 2 that about 50g of carbs per day could be classed as a ketogenic way of eating? Could well be.. it seems that even some Type 2's can be in ketosis with an intake of 50g per day although the figure of 20g per day is usually used I think because more people will be guaranteed to be in ketosis at this level.
So they could both be correct.
Click to expand...
 
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