If you have a new baby and are not breastfeeding a new study suggests that your baby's brain and heart will thank you for buying formula that is enriched with two critically important long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, DHA and ARA. In the University of Kansas Study infants who were fed fortified formula were more cognitively advanced and had heart Benefits. Study lead author John Colombo, a neuroscientist who specializes in the measurement of early neurocognitive development, said that the findings add to the mounting evidence that these nutritional compounds positively affect brain and behavioral development.
DHA or docosahexaenoic acid is an essential long-chain fatty-acid that affects brain and eye development, and babies derive it from their mothers before birth and if they are breastfeeding, up to age two. But the American diet is markedly deficient in DHA sources such as fish. ARA or arachidonic acid is another long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid that is present in breast milk and commercial formula.
Colombo and Carlson’s earlier work and collaborations influenced infant formula manufacturers to begin adding DHA in 2001.
John Colombo, Susan E. Carlson, Carol L. Cheatham, Kathleen M. Fitzgerald-Gustafson, Amy Kepler, Tasha Doty. Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation in Infancy Reduces Heart Rate and Positively Affects Distribution of Attention. Pediatric Research, 2011
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