Articles and Books

It’s now emerging that our gut microbiota could be crucial for improving brain health during aging! Researchers from Nestlé, Harvard Medical School and ETH Zürich highlight in the newest Gut Microbiome edition the current knowledge on the link between the gut microbiota and the brain during aging.

The researchers assess the existing evidence on the effects of diet on the gut microbiota, bringing to light the potential for gut microbiota-based nutritional interventions during aging to support and promote brain health.

Middle childhood and early adolescence have received disproportionately low levels of scientific attention relative to other life stages, especially as related to nutrition and health. This review highlights the specificities of growth and development in school age, with a focus on middle childhood and early adolescence (5 years–15 years of age, for the purposes of this review), the role of nutrition, the short- and long-term consequences of inadequate nutrition, and the current global status of nutrition in this age group.

The current pandemic and the concerns of vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 have contributed to increasing the rate of breastfeeding interruption. This tendency has been associated with negative effects on the well-being of lactating mothers and their infants. The aim of this review is to summarize the evidence on the strategies to support breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic and on the safety of breastfeeding during a SARS-CoV-2 infection or after COVID-19 vaccination.

Studies have shown that aside from its health effects on babies, breastfeeding also positively impacts maternal health. Breastfeeding has been strongly associated with decreased maternal risk of type 2 diabetes, breast and ovarian cancers .Meanwhile, the definite link between breastfeeding and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has not been fully established. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to address this gap, as it presents the association between breastfeeding and maternal risk for CVD events, including coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and fatal CVD .

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) have important biological functions for a healthy development in early life. This study aimed to investigate gut maturation effects of an infant formula containing five HMOs (20-fucosyllactose, 20,3-di-fucosyllactose, lacto-N-tetraose, 30- sialyllactose, and 60-sialyllactose). 

Thise Editorial highlights middle childhood and adolescence, between 5 and 19 years of age, as a transformative period in the lifecycle. These “school-age years” bridge early life and adulthood through significant and specific physiologic, somatic, cognitive, and psychosocial bursts of change.

The maximum rate of bone mass accumulation occurs during the school-age years and plateaus in late adolescence, after which little incremental accrual will occur.

School age is also a critical period of brain growth and development. By 12 years of age, brain and grey matter growth reach final adult size, and the brain tissue undergoes a great increase in pruning of “less utilized” neuronal synapses, which significantly increases brain efficiency.