Is there palm oil in breast milk? 2026

30% of the world's production of fats and oils comes from palm oil, a vegetable oil rich in saturated fats, mainly palmitic acid. There are many manufactured products that contain palm oil, including the formula milk that we give to our babies. It is in question because it worsens cardiovascular health, increasing LDL cholesterol, better known as "bad cholesterol", as well as the environmental and social impact of its exploitation model. Amid so much social and health alarm, Mercadona has decided to remove this product from its pastries and the Lidl supermarket chain from its BIO assortment.

The Spanish Association of Pediatrics in a statement, trying to reassure about palm oil, states that "breast milk is the ideal food for the infant and the model on which breast milk substitutes are made and developed. Of all the saturated fatty acids in breast milk, palmitic acid is the most abundant; it constitutes between 20 and 25% of the fatty acids in milk, of which an important part is placed in position 2 of triglyceride (also known as beta). In this position, the absorption of palmitic acid is favored.

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We have consulted Nania Schärer-Hernández, director of Global Education and Training at Medela, an expert in breast milk, to clarify our doubts. The data speaks for itself. Breast milk itself has palmitic acid, and "provides between 10-12% of the energy a baby needs in its diet." So why all the fuss? What other substances make up breast milk? Is palmitic acid essential for our children? Is that why baby formula milk contains palm oil? We clear up doubts:

What is breast milk made of?

Human milk is a living substance that changes to adapt to the developmental needs of the child. There is nothing that can replace breast milk as it contains thousands of different ingredients such as proteins, fats, lactose, vitamins, iron, minerals, water and enzymes. The vast majority of these ingredients cannot be replicated artificially and there are surely components that we still do not know. Furthermore, a drop of breast milk contains approximately 4,000 live cells! Every day children drink billions of live cells from their mother's milk! These live cells are white blood cells (immune cells that fight infections) that rapidly increase in number if the child or mother is sick. Other live cells in mother's milk are commensal bacteria. These are present in milk in a healthy amount and play an important role in establishing the baby's intestinal flora, in addition to protecting against infections and contributing to the maturation of the immune system. Recent research shows that breast milk also contains stem cells, one of the most important components of human development that could also be an internal repair mechanism.

Does breast milk contain, like palm oil, palmitic acid?

50% of the fatty acids in mammalian milk, including breast milk, are saturated fatty acids. Palmitic acid provides, through breast milk, between 10-12% of the energy that a baby needs in its diet.  Other saturated fatty acids secreted by the mammary gland are capric, lauric and myristic.

Why all the fuss about palm oil if breast milk itself contains it?

Some of the recent commentary on palm oil does not refer to palmitic acid itself, but to contaminants (glycidol 3-MCPD and derivatives) that are generated during the palm oil refining process. An interesting question would be how the unique properties of human milk allow the baby to grow and thrive on a diet of highly saturated fatty acids that, in other contexts and stages of life, would be considered to increase the risk of certain diseases. Human milk has properties such as fatty complexes of lipid globules and triglyceride structures, which are structures that not only allow the efficient absorption and processing of a diet rich in fat and saturated fatty acids, but also provide energy to the metabolism and promote growth without causing metabolic stress in the child. So, the question is not only whether palmitic acid is present, but whether it is part of the triglycerides and what structure it has in them. In human milk, palmitic acid appears mainly as β-palmitate. β-Palmitate positively influences the metabolization of fatty acids, increases calcium absorption, improves the quality of bone formation and stool consistency, in addition to having a positive effect on the development of the intestinal microbiota.Palmitic acid in human milk is not only a source of energy, but also provides fatty acids to membrane lipids and has a main role in neuronal signaling and calcium ion channel activity.