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Associations between perinatal biomarkers of maternal dairy fat intake and child cognitive development: results from the EDEN mother-child cohort

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 79, pages 320–328 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objective

Offspring’s optimal neurodevelopment depends on maternal dietary lipids supply during the perinatal period. Dairy products are an important source of fat in Western diets. This study aimed at examining the associations between maternal dairy fat intake during pregnancy, evaluated through biomarkers in perinatal biofluids (C15:0 and C17:0) and child’s cognitive outcomes.

Subjects/Methods

Participants (N up to 1200) were French mother-child pairs from the EDEN cohort study. Biomarkers were assessed in the following biofluids: maternal red blood cells (RBC) membrane at 24 weeks’ gestation, cord RBC membrane, and colostrum. Cognitive outcomes were language abilities scores at ages 2 and 3 years and overall cognitive development scores at ages 3 and 5–6 years. Associations were assessed using multiple linear regression models adjusted for factors related to family socioeconomic context, maternal lifestyle, and healthy diet score. Interaction of any breastfeeding duration on the associations with dairy fat biomarkers in colostrum was studied.

Results

Positive associations were observed between levels of C17:0 in cord RBC and C15:0 in maternal RBC with language abilities. In children breastfed for at least 6 months, C15:0 level in colostrum was positively associated with language abilities at age 3 years and overall cognitive development at ages 3 and 5–6 years whereas C17:0 level was only associated with overall cognitive development at age 3 years.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that maternal higher intake of dairy fat during perinatal period could be potentially associated with offspring’s better cognitive development. These pioneering results call for external validation to challenge their causality.

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Fig. 1: Associations between C15:0 and C17:0 levels in perinatal biofluids and child’s language abilities at ages 2 (CDI-2; on the left) or 3 years (LC-3; on the right).
Fig. 2: Associations between C15:0 and C17:0 levels in perinatal biofluids and child’s overall cognitive development scores at ages 3 (ASQ-3; on the left) or 5–6 years (IQ-5; on the right).
Fig. 3: Associations between C15:0 and C17:0 levels in perinatal biofluids with VIQ-5 (on the left) and PIQ-5 at age 5–6 years (on the right).

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Data availability

The data underlying the findings cannot be made freely available for ethical and legal restrictions imposed, because this study includes a substantial number of variables that, together, could be used to re-identify the participants based on a few key characteristics and then be used to have access to other personal data. Therefore, the French ethics authority strictly forbids making these data freely available. However, they can be obtained upon request from the EDEN principal investigator. Readers may contact [email protected] to request the data. The analytic code will be made available upon request pending application and approval.

Code availability

The data underlying the findings cannot be made freely available for ethical and legal restrictions imposed, because this study includes a substantial number of variables that, together, could be used to re-identify the participants based on a few key characteristics and then be used to have access to other personal data. Therefore, the French ethics authority strictly forbids making these data freely available. However, they can be obtained upon request from the EDEN principal investigator. Readers may contact [email protected] to request the data. The analytic code will be made available upon request pending application and approval.

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Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in this study, the midwives for their help in recruiting them, and the whole EDEN team, which includes psychologists, research scientists, engineers, technicians, and managers. The authors thank the EDEN mother-child cohort study group, whose members are I. Annesi-Maesano, JYB, J. Botton, MAC, P. Dargent-Molina, B. de Lauzon-Guillain, P. Ducimetière, M. de Agostini, B. Foliguet, A. Forhan, X. Fritel, A. Germa, V. Goua, R. Hankard, B. Heude, M. Kaminski, B. Larroque, N. Lelong, J. Lepeule, G. Magnin, L. Marchand, C. Nabet, F. Pierre, R. Slama, M.J. Saurel-Cubizolles, M. Schweitzer, O. Thiebaugeorges.

Funding

This study was sponsored by French Dairy Interbranch Organisation (CNIEL). The EDEN cohort study was financed by the Foundation for Medical Research (FRM), National Agency for Research (ANR), National Institute for Research in Public Health (IRESP: TGIR cohorte santé 2008 program), French Ministry of Health (DGS), French Ministry of Research, Inserm Bone and Joint Diseases National Research (PRO-A) and Human Nutrition National Research Programs, Paris–Sud University, Nestlé, French National Institute for Population Health Surveillance (InVS), French National Institute for Health Education (INPES), the European Union FP7 programs (FP7/2007-2013, HELIX, ESCAPE, ENRIECO, Medall projects), Diabetes National Research Program (through a collaboration with the French Association of Diabetic Patients (AFD)), French Agency for Environmental Health Safety (now ANSES), Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale (MGEN), French National Agency for Food Safety, and the French-speaking association for the study of diabetes and metabolism (ALFEDIAM). Biological analyses of colostrum samples were funded by the PremUp foundation (French foundation for scientific cooperation in connection with pregnancy and prematurity) and the Groupe Lipides Nutrition (GLN). Biological analyses of red blood cell membrane were funded by the Institut Danone France and FRM (Prix IDF/FRM pour les Sciences de l’Alimentation 2015). All funders (except CNIEL with aforementioned involvement) had no influence of any kind on the study hypothesis/design, execution, analysis or interpretation.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Barbara Heude, Jonathan Y. Bernard.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Inserm, INRAE, Center for Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), Paris, France

    Wen Lun Yuan, Marie Aline Charles, Barbara Heude & Jonathan Y. Bernard

  2. Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore

    Wen Lun Yuan

  3. Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CRMBM, Marseille, France

    Martine Armand & Catherine Sarté

  4. Centre de Ressources Autisme Languedoc-Roussillon et Centre d’Excellence sur l’Autisme et les Troubles Neuro-développementaux, CHU Montpellier, Montpellier cedex 05, France

    Hugo Peyre

  5. Université Paris-Saclay, UVSQ, Inserm, CESP, Team DevPsy, Villejuif, France

    Hugo Peyre

  6. Team of Cognitive development and pathologies, Cognitive Sciences and Psycholinguistics Laboratory (LSCP), CNRS, Paris, France

    Hugo Peyre

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Contributions

The authors’ responsibilities were as follows—WLY, JYB, and BH designed research. WLY conducted research. MA and CS provided essential materials. WLY performed statistical analysis. WLY wrote the initial draft. JYB, MA, CS, MAC, BH, and HP critically reviewed and edited the draft. WLY had primary responsibility for final content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wen Lun Yuan.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Research support, including salaries, equipment, reimbursement for attending symposia, and maintenance of the EDEN cohort study, was provided by CNIEL. While CNIEL contributed to the study hypothesis, they were not involved in the study’s design, execution, or analysis. Academic independence was maintained throughout all stages of the study, as the study protocol was pre-registered on OSF prior to the study’s commencement and has remained unmodified to date [29]. Full academic independence for reporting and publishing all findings was mutually agreed upon and documented at the onset of the collaboration. Details regarding data sharing and access are provided in the “Data and Code Availability Statement” section of this manuscript.

Ethical approval

The EDEN mother-child cohort study was approved by the ethics committee of Kremlin Bicêtre (CPP reference 02–70, December 2002; CCTIRS reference 02-189, July 2002) and the National Data Protection Authority (“Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés”, CNIL reference 902267, December 2002).

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Yuan, W.L., Armand, M., Peyre, H. et al. Associations between perinatal biomarkers of maternal dairy fat intake and child cognitive development: results from the EDEN mother-child cohort. Eur J Clin Nutr 79, 320–328 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-024-01544-3

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