Effects of infant formula composition on long-term metabolic health

Marion Lemaire (1, 2) , Isabelle Le Huërou-Luron (2) , Sophie Blat (2)

1 Groupe Lactalis
2 NuMeCan - Nutrition, Métabolismes et Cancer

Early nutrition may have long-lasting metabolic impacts in adulthood. Even though breast milk is the gold standard, most infants are at least partly formula-fed. Despite obvious improvements, infant formulas remain perfectible to reduce the gap between breastfed and formula-fed infants. Improvements such as reducing the protein content, modulating the lipid matrix and adding prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics, are discussed regarding metabolic health. Numerous questions remain to be answered on how impacting the infant formula composition may modulate the host metabolism and exert long-term benefits. Interactions between early nutrition (composition of human milk and infant formula) and the gut microbiota profile, as well as mechanisms connecting gut microbiota to metabolic health, are highlighted. Gut microbiota stands as a key actor in the nutritional programming but additional well-designed longitudinal human studies are needed.

Mots clés: early nutrition; neonatal feeding; nutritional programming; metabolism; gut microbiota

Mots clés: alimentation neonatale; métabolisme; microbiote digestif; nutrition infantile; programmation nutritionnelle

Domaines: Alimentation et Nutrition

Marion Lemaire, Isabelle Le Huërou-Luron, Sophie Blat. Effects of infant formula composition on long-term metabolic health. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 2018, 9 (6), pp.573-589. ⟨10.1017/S2040174417000964⟩. ⟨hal-01723931⟩