The Impact of Maternal Nutrition on the Offspring

Book excerpt: Maternal nutritional status affects the offsprings health development significantly during early embryogenesis, pregnancy, birth and lactation, and subsequently determines health during growth and even throughout adulthood. On the other end of the human lifetime scale, the importance of maternal nutrition expands into the time period before conception: Pre-conception nutritional status not only influences fertility, but also embryogenesis and life-long health. Predisposition for coronary heart diseases, Type-2 diabetes mellitus, and hypertension can be caused by intrauterine adaptations to fetal malnutrition. Hence, optimizing nutrition for women during their reproductive period can be expected to have a great impact on the well being of the next generation. This workshop dealt with the effects of maternal nutrition on fetal growth, metabolic programming, energy and nutrient requirements, as well as under- and over-nutrition during pregnancy. Finally, it addressed the question of whether a distinct diet during pregnancy could reduce food allergy in the progeny. This book is a valuable and complete source of knowledge for all professionals involved in pediatrics, nutrition policy, womens health, immunology, epidemiology and public health.