Prebiotics and Probiotics in Human Milk: Origins and Functions of Milk-Borne Oligosaccharides and Bacteria provides a comprehensive, yet approachable, treatise on what is currently known about the origins and functions of human milk oligosaccharides (HMO), the complex sugars in milk that are not digested by the infant.
The book examines how HMOs and bacteria in human milk may function independently and coordinately to influence both maternal and infant health. Human milk is the only food designed specifically to nourish humans, indeed representing the essence of a perfect functional food. And although researchers have been studying its composition for decades, surprisingly little is really understood about the origins and functions of its myriad components, an area that is especially true for HMOs and bacteria.