Human milk also contains a less-well-known special ingredient called human milk oligosaccharides, or HMOs. HMOs are a collection of complex carbohydrates that are the third most abundant class of molecules in breast milk after fat and lactose. Their chemical structure is incredibly complex, so complex in fact that humans do not have the capacity to digest it. That’s right, one of the main ingredients in breast milk is not digestible by the infant who’s drinking it. Why would a mother put precious energy into making something her baby can’t use? The answer is that HMOs aren’t for feeding the
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