Although there is much attention paid to reducing consumption
of fat by older children and adults, fat is an important nutrient in an infant's diet.
In addition to being used as a source of energy by growing babies, fat is an
essential component of various structures. For example, fat is a very important
building block for myelin, a substance that surrounds nervous tissue in healthy
children and is necessary for nerves to function normally. DHA and ARA are two
fats, or lipids, which are particularly important in brain and eye development.
Essential Fats
Like the amino acids used to build protein, there are fats that babies cannot make themselves
and therefore must be included in their diet. These are called 'essential' fats because they
are required for normal healthy growth. Linolenic and linoleic acid are essential fats.
Vegetable oils are good sources of essential fats
Bright Beginnings uses vegetable oils to provide fat because they are safe and are better sources of essential
fats than cow's milk fat. Corn oil and soybean oil, for example, are rich in the essential
fat linoleic acid.
Breast milk is the 'gold standard'
Like almost all other nutrients, the types and amounts of fat in breast milk are felt to be
ideal for babies. Breast milk is thus the model, or 'gold standard', after which Bright
Beginnings is designed.
Bright Beginnings' fat composition is similar to breast milk
Bright Beginnings contains palm, safflower, sunflower, soybean and coconut vegetable oils to provide the
fats like those found in breast milk.
Although
Bright Beginnings formulas closely resemble human milk in many ways, human milk contains many
substances not found in formulas that help keep babies healthy. |
