Written by Joyce Smith, BS. An increased maternal intake of cow’s milk during lactation was associated with a lower prevalence of physician-diagnosed food allergy by 12 months of age.
In 2019 Stravik and colleagues 1 examined the associations between the maternal characteristics and maternal dietary intake during pregnancy in 567 of the Swedish women in the NICE cohort. As a follow-up to that study 2, they surveyed the eating habits of 508 of the women and the prevalence of allergies in their children at 12 months of age. Using detailed accounts of the mothers’ eating habits at specific times throughout pregnancy (at 34 weeks, and at one and four months post- delivery), researchers found that mothers of healthy one-year-olds consumed more cow’s milk during breastfeeding than mothers of allergic one-year-olds. They verified the increased maternal intake of cow’s milk and milk products during lactation through biomarkers in the maternal blood and breast milk. There are two fatty acids biomarkers, pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:0), that are formed in the cow’s stomach and are dairy product specific. In addition, any allergies in children were diagnosed by an allergy specialist, and at 12 months of age, all children were examined and the collected data analyzed.
Of the 508 participating infants, 33 (6.5%) were diagnosed with atopic eczema, 33 (6.5%) with asthma, and 39 (7.7%) had some type of allergy (including non-food-based) at one year of age. Twenty-one of the 39 infants showed symptoms of an ongoing food allergy between 1 and 2 years of age. Fifteen of the 39 infants were allergic to only cow’s milk, 8 only to eggs, and 10 to multiple food items including egg, milk, soy and peanut. Data analysis revealed that increased maternal consumption of cow’s milk during lactation was associated with decreased physician-diagnosed food allergy by 12 months of age. However, consumption of fruit and berries during lactation was associated with an increased prevalence of atopic eczema at 12 months of age, suggesting that maternal diet modulates the infant’s immune system, thereby, influencing subsequent allergy development.
It remains unclear how cow’s milk in the mother’s diet can influence immunity and child allergy. One possibility may be that the milk in the mother’s diet stimulates the immune system of the infant to develop food tolerance and prevent allergy development. In a child’s early development, there is a time window during which stimulation of the immune system is necessary. A higher intake of saturated milk fats can compete with and lower intake of polyunsaturated fats 3 to help prevent allergies 4,5. The anti-inflammatory activity of unsaturated fats suppresses the activation of T cells which are needed to stimulate the immune system during a crucial window of development. In addition cow’s milk contains bioactive proline-rich peptides that enhance T- cell growth and osteopontin to modulate immune function 6.
It should be noted that children of breastfeeding mothers (who at the four month measurement were eating a lot of fruit, berries, nuts and seed), tended to suffer from atopic eczema to a much greater extent compared to the children with asthma whose symptoms did not appear to be impacted by the mother’s diet and did not change remarkably over time. Further studies are needed to validate the associations. A follow-up study is planned to examine the children’s health at four years of age.
This observational study cannot prove causation and the possibility of residual confounding exists. The dietary data based on intake frequency and portion size could have been more accurately estimated had food portions been weighed. Also, supplement intake was excluded from the analysis.
Source: Stravik, Mia, et al. “Maternal Intake of Cow’s Milk during Lactation Is Associated with Lower Prevalence of Food Allergy in Offspring.” Nutrients 12.12 (2020): 3680.
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Posted March 2, 2021.
Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.
References:
- Stråvik M, Jonsson K, Hartvigsson O, et al. Food and Nutrient Intake during Pregnancy in Relation to Maternal Characteristics: Results from the NICE Birth Cohort in Northern Sweden. Nutrients. 2019;11(7).
- Stråvik M, Barman M, Hesselmar B, Sandin A, Wold AE, Sandberg AS. Maternal Intake of Cow’s Milk during Lactation Is Associated with Lower Prevalence of Food Allergy in Offspring. Nutrients. 2020;12(12).
- Barman M, Johansson S, Hesselmar B, Wold AE, Sandberg AS, Sandin A. High levels of both n-3 and n-6 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in cord serum phospholipids predict allergy development. PLoS One. 2013;8(7):e67920.
- Black PN, Sharpe S. Dietary fat and asthma: is there a connection? The European respiratory journal. 1997;10(1):6-12.
- Dunder T, Kuikka L, Turtinen J, Räsänen L, Uhari M. Diet, serum fatty acids, and atopic diseases in childhood. Allergy. 2001;56(5):425-428.
- Lönnerdal B. Biological effects of novel bovine milk fractions. Nestle Nutrition workshop series Paediatric programme. 2011;67:41-54.
