Olive oil and pregnancy

In a recently concluded investigation, the influence that the consumption of extra virgin olive oil during pregnancy has on breast milk has been examined.

The consumption of extra virgin olive oil, a product with widely known benefits for health, increases the level of phenolic compounds in breast milk and its effect can cross the placental barrier to reach the offspring.

This has been confirmed in a study carried out on rats by a team from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona (UB), the Institute for Research in Nutrition and Food Safety (INSA, attached to the UB) and the Obesity and Nutrition Area of ​​the Center for Biomedical Research in the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition Network (CIBEROBN), in Spain.

The results of this study add to the evidence obtained previously that diets enriched with extra virgin olive oil can modify or even increase the content of these phenolic compounds in breast milk with possible benefits for the health of the infant.

The study is led by the experts Maria J. Rodríguez-Lagunas and Anna Vallverdú-Queralt.

Breast milk is the best source of nutrition for infants, as it contains essential nutrients and bioactive factors (hormones, antibodies, microorganisms, stem cells, etc.). In addition, it provides many short- and long-term benefits for both the mother and the infant, and in the case of the newborn, it reduces the incidence of infections and the risk of metabolic diseases in the future.

Extra virgin olive oil is the main source of fat in the Mediterranean diet, but until now it was unknown that the phenolic compounds in this product could become a component of breast milk and be available to infants.

Olive oil. (Photo: Amazings/NCYT)

Within the framework of the preclinical work, the team made this discovery after an analysis to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the levels of phenolic compounds and their derivatives in biological samples from both the pregnant animal and the offspring after six weeks of daily intake of extra virgin olive oil.

The results of the research showed that phenolic compounds from the diet —specifically, those from extra virgin olive oil— reach the systemic circulation of mothers. In addition, numerous phenolic compounds and their derivatives were detected in breast milk. Interestingly, it is also important to note that some of the phenolic compounds or their metabolites were detected at higher concentrations in the plasma of the offspring than in the plasma of the mothers.

“To date, several studies have described that the composition of breast milk can be affected by biological and environmental factors to which the mother is exposed, such as the mother’s diet. Thus, nutritional interventions during pregnancy and lactation can impact the quality of breast milk and, consequently, the health of the offspring. Therefore, our findings shed new light on the importance of maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation, and provide the basis for future studies on the impact of phenolic compounds on maternal and offspring health.” conclude the authors of this study.

The study is titled “Nutrition during pregnancy and lactation: New evidence for the vertical transmission of extra virgin olive oil phenolic compounds in rats.” And it has been published in the academic journal Food Chemistry. (Source: UB)