[PHNUTR-L] Scientists study the link between children's nutrition and adult diseases

[Kathrynne Holden]

Colleagues, the following is FYI and does not necessarily reflect my own
opinion. I have no further knowledge of the topic. If you do not wish to
receive these posts, set your email filter to filter out any messages
coming from   @nutritionucanlivewith.com    and the program will remove
anything coming from me.
---------------------------------------------------------
Public release date: 15-Jan-2008
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/udg-sst011508.php

Contact: Cristina Campoy Folgoso
ccampoy at ugr.es
34-629-308-695
Universidad de Granada

Scientists study the link between children's nutrition and adult diseases

This release is also available in Spanish.

Researchers from the Department of Pediatrics of the University of 
Granada, in collaboration with another 38 universities and companies 
from 16 European countries, will study the effects of children’s 
nutrition on the onset of cardiovascular problems, diabetes, obesity, 
allergies, weak bones, neuromotor functioning and children’s behavioural 
aspects. The EARNEST project (The Early Nutrition Programming Project) 
aims to help in the development of policies, information campaigns, 
documents, guides and recommendations on the nutritional components of 
children’s food, for the improvement of children’s formulas. It also 
collaborates in the design of plans preventing and avoiding nutrition 
effects on the metabolism.

Thanks to this project, the University of Granada becomes the only 
Spanish investigation centre taking part in this ambitious initiative, 
the first of its kind in Europe. Cristina Campoy Folgoso, the professor 
heading this initiative in Granada, emphasizes that the “early nutrition 
programming” is quite a recent subject in the health and science field 
today. “Different studies show how food can have long-term consequences 
in children’s growth and health during pregnancy, the breastfeeding 
period and childhood. Moreover, food can also have influence over the 
later onset of diseases”, states the researcher.

Study of diseases

This project aims to answer the question about the extent of nutrition 
effects of prenatal, postnatal, and infant diets of someone among the 
current European population in critical periods of development as well 
as the efficiency of actions preventing and avoiding long, medium and 
short-term metabolic effects on health.

The project will tackle randomly assigned clinical tests and nutritional 
interventions during pregnancy and childhood, pilot studies, tests on 
animals, cells and genomita, as well as social and economic studies 
connected with nutrition in the first stages of life and their 
significance in the development of later diseases. The researchers hope 
to find the genetic mechanism of diseases such as diabetes and obesity 
with this project. “Obesity, a growing global epidemic, begins, partly, 
during child development –explains professor Campoy Folgoso-. It is 
known that breastfed children’s growth kinetics differ from those fed 
with commercial foods. These children easily gain weight and height. 
Considering these consequences, linked with eating habits, the purpose 
of this project is to study whether breastfeeding can prevent a later 
risk of obesity.

###

About EARNEST

This investigation project is financed by the European Commission and is 
made up of 38 multidisciplinary groups of professionals from 16 European 
countries. Scientists from different institutions of all over Europe are 
involved in it: 33 academic institutions, 5 industries and 7 PYMES 
companies form the project, coordinated by Ludwig Maximilians University 
in Munich (Germany). It began in April 2005 and will last until 2010.

* Coordinator: Professor Berthold Koletzko. Dr. von Hauner Children’s 
Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians. Ludwig-Maximilians Universty, Munich, Germany.

* Institutions taking part: Medical Research Council-Institute of Child 
Health (London, United Kingdom); University of Pécs (Pécs, Hungary); 
University of Granada (Spain); University of London-Alliance (United 
Kingdom); Danish Epidemiology Science Centre (Copenhagen, Denmark); 
Aarhus University (Denmark); Instituto municipal de Investigació Médica 
(Barcelona, Spain); Inst of Public Health (Oslo, Norwich); University of 
Bristol Alliance (United Kingdom); The Children’s Memorial Health 
Institute (Warsaw, Poland); GSF National Research Centre for Environment 
and Health (Germany); University Hospital Groningen (Holland); Turku 
University Central Hospital (Turku, Finland); University of Nottingham 
(United Kingdom); Louvain Universities Alliance (Belgium); Rowett 
Research Institute (Scotland, United Kingdom); University of Cambridge 
(United Kingdom); Research Institute for the Biology of Farm Animals 
(Germany); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France); INSERM 
(Paris, France); RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the 
Environment (Holland); Institute of Physiology (Prague, Czech Republic); 
University Medical Centre (Utrecht, Holland); University of Surrey 
(United Kingdom).

* Companies: DNA testing Ltd (Scotland, United Kingdom); Schothorst Feed 
Research (Holland); Ashwell Associates (United Kingdom); RDE Software 
GmbH (Munich, Germany); Institute for Market Research, Strategy and 
Planning (Munich, Germany); Arexis (Gothenburg, Sweden); BioScientifica, 
(Bristol, United Kingdom).

* Industry: Numico (Friedrichsdorf, Germany); Ordesa, (Spain); Orafti 
(Belgium); Mead Johnson (USA); Nestlé International.

Web: www.metabolic-programming.org
-- 
Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD < fivestar at nutritionucanlivewith.com >
"Ask the Parkinson Dietitian"  http://www.parkinson.org/
"Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease"
"Parkinson's disease: Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy"
http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/