Table 2.
Mineral concentrations in breast milk by maternal diet pattern
(Median and quartiles; mean values and standard deviations)
| Mineral (units) | By maternal diet pattern | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall (n 63) | Vegan (n 23) | Vegetarian (n 19) | Omnivore (n 21) | ||||||
| Median | Quartile 1, quartile 3 | Median | Quartile 1, quartile 3 | Median | Quartile 1, quartile 3 | Median | Quartile 1, quartile 3 | P | |
| Ca (mg/l) | 223 | 195, 255 | 229 | 192, 244 | 223 | 206, 271 | 222 | 188, 255 | 0·90 |
| Cu (µg/l) | 121 | 66, 184 | 107 | 63, 184 | 123 | 62, 166 | 146 | 79, 232 | 0·50 |
| I (µg/l) | 80 | 55, 147 | 62 | 40, 132 | 80 | 63, 147 | 93 | 71, 179 | 0·10 |
| Fe (µg/l) | 159 | 130, 216 | 150 | 131, 186 | 147 | 126, 227 | 184 | 146, 216 | 0·42 |
| Pb (µg/l) | 1·0 | 0·1, 2·0 | 1·0 | 0·1, 2·0 | 1·0 | 0·1, 2·0 | 1·0 | 1·0, 3·0 | 0·22 |
| Mg (mg/l)* | |||||||||
| Mean | 32 | 32 | 34 | 31 | 0·55 | ||||
| sd | 9 | 9 | 12 | 7 | |||||
| Mn (µg/l) | 3 | 2, 4 | 3 | 2, 4 | 3 | 2, 3 | 3 | 2, 4 | 0·88 |
| P (mg/l) | 122 | 110, 133 | 125 | 119, 139 | 120 | 110, 138 | 115 | 108, 126 | 0·16 |
| K (mg/l)* | |||||||||
| Mean | 416 | 425 | 407 | 416 | 0·55 | ||||
| sd | 53 | 54 | 45 | 60 | |||||
| Se (µg/l) | 19 | 15, 24 | 19a | 18, 25 | 21a | 18, 26 | 17b | 14, 20 | 0·007 |
| Na (mg/l) | 88 | 66, 139 | 91 | 63, 141 | 93 | 69, 174 | 88 | 65, 113 | 0·41 |
| Zn (µg/l) | 681 | 311, 1284 | 1012 | 80, 1393 | 480 | 80, 835 | 681 | 382, 988 | 0·38 |
Data represent median (quartile 1, quartile 3) evaluated with a Kruskal–Wallis test unless otherwise noted. Values with a different superscript were significantly different using Dunn’s test for multiple comparisons.
*
Data represent means and standard deviations evaluated with ANOVA test.