In fall 2018, researchers at the Food for Health Institute conducted a ‘Nutrition Tracking Study’ to explore how new technologies can be used to measure dietary intake and nutrition. The project team included Sara Schaefer, PhD (Principal Investigator), Sarah Dimitratos, RD (Registered Dietitian & PhD Student) and 25 research interns majoring in Clinical Nutrition, Nutrition Science and Food Science & Technology.
FFHI scientists have found that mother's milk is not only nourishing to infants, but also protects them against pathogens and other invaders. This is because complex sugars found in breastmilk feed specific protective microbes that inhabit the infant gut. Now, this team has shown these same sugars can also be obtained from cow's milk.
FFHI researchers are part of an important paper in Cell, which offers novel approaches to address childhood malnutrition through nourishing gut microbes with milk compounds.