University of Auckland researchers behind the trials — thought to be the first of its kind in the world — now hope to recruit several hundred healthy babies to take part. Photo / Getty Images
University of Auckland researchers behind the trials — thought to be the first of its kind in the world — now hope to recruit several hundred healthy babies to take part. Photo / Getty Images
It’s a Kiwi dinner plate staple: but can the humble kūmara also help bubs ward off viruses and sleep soundly?
The popular vegetable is at the centre of a ground-breaking study, exploring whether kūmara fosters healthy bacteria within the community of tiny organisms that make up a baby’s microbiome.
University of Auckland researchers behind the trials – dubbed the SUN study, and thought to be the first of their kind in the world – now hope to recruit several hundred healthy babies to take part.
“What babies first eat and what they’re subjected to within their environment, really impacts on the way they grow and develop,” principal investigator Professor Clare Wall said.
“When we talk about growth, it’s not only their length and how much weight they gain, but it’s also the brain’s development, how their immune system develops, and, how their metabolism gets set up.
“Those early stages really define your trajectory for the rest of your life.”
There’s now been much research showing how breastfeeding supports the development of a baby’s microbiome, with the largest concentration of micro-organisms found in the large bowel.
“When a baby’s being breastfed, they have certain types of bacteria that keep the bowel healthy and help the baby’s immune system develop,” Wall explained.
“But we don’t know what happens when you start introducing solid foods and how that impacts on further development of the microbiome, but also of immune competence and metabolic function.”
She said the gut microbiome was important for “signalling” across the bowel into the body and to the brain.
“This gut-brain axis is like a communication network that connects with your immune system and other important systems that regulate the way we process food,” she said.
“But we don’t really know what optimal nutrition is, particularly for developing the microbiome and for immune development.”
“It’s a New Zealand food, it’s taonga and it’s, I think, a very under-rated food – it’s got all sorts of fantastic properties," University of Auckland researcher Professor Clare Wall says of kumara. Photo / File
That’s where kūmara came in.
“It’s a New Zealand food, it’s taonga and it’s, I think, a very under-rated food – it’s got all sorts of fantastic properties.”
Particularly, it packed prebiotics: dietary fibres and certain carbohydrates known to nourish the bugs in the large bowel.
“When you feed your bugs in your large bowel with carbohydrate-type foods, when they break them down, they produce short-chain fatty acids,” Wall said.
“Those short chain fatty acids provide energy and are really important for keeping the gut healthy, but they also affect the signalling pathway.”
Once taken up into the blood, they helped produce signals to the brain, and could go into the liver to get broken down and be used as energy.
“And it’s felt that some of those short-chain fatty acids provide us with greater amounts of energy than the others,” Wall said.
“This in turn may impact on how babies sleep.”
The study team aimed to enrol 300 babies before they began solids, before coming in for three assessments over four months.
The researchers planned to use babies’ stool samples to analyse the effects of starting solids on the microbiome and, if willing, mothers could also provide stool and breastmilk samples for analysis.
University of Auckland researcher Clare Wall. Photo / Supplied
The study – funded by MBIE, as part of the High-Value Nutrition National Science Challenge - would also record other aspects of the mother’s and baby’s diet, to assess the impact of breastfeeding and of kūmara on baby, compared with a control group.
“There’s hardly been any studies looking at the introduction of solid foods, and then following up babies, longitudinally, to look at changes... so it’s quite a unique study.”
Trial manager Dr Robyn Lawrence said it was hoped the results would inform advice to parents on what solids to introduce babies to best help their long-term development.
“Being a dietitian, I use a lot of research-informed evidence to give people advice on what to feed their baby,” she said.
“And my view is, if we don’t have the research, we don’t really have a lot to base our recommendations on.
“So, our study is really just adding to that evidence base, so that we can make good recommendations for healthy babies and healthy families.”
Famillies interested in taking part can visit the SUN Study website for more information and contact details.
