Pregnancy diet linked with lifelong effects for baby

10/03/06 University of Nottingham researchers are targeting Europe's biggest killer diseases — by focusing on the diet of unborn babies.

Poor nutrition in the womb and in the first months of infancy can condemn an individual to a life of poor health including higher risks of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Scientists believe a baby is 'programmed' for a lifetime of good or poor health in its first few months by the type and amount of nutrition they receive.

Experts at The University of Nottingham are now heading up part of an £11m project to pinpoint the best way of giving babies a healthy start that will benefit them for the whole of their lives.

Their findings will help to shape public policy on mothers' diet in pregnancy and lactation. The Nottingham team believes the project could have as big an impact on public health as other lifestyle interventions — such as decreasing food intake and increasing exercise — which are much more difficult to impose.

Professor Michael Symonds, Head of the Academic Division of Child Health at Nottingham University Medical School, said: “What your mother eats and how you are fed as a baby can programme you for a lifetime of good health or bad health.

The EU-funded project is known as EARNEST, its full title being 'Early Nutrition Programming — Long-term follow-up of efficacy and safety trials and integrated epidemiological, genetic, animal, consumer and economic research'.

The University of Nottingham team is embarking on a series of intervention studies, manipulating diet during pregnancy and lactation to establish the optimum dietary patterns for humans.

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/public-affairs/press-releases/index.phtml?menu=pressreleases&code=PREG-37/06&create_date=08-mar-2006