Nutrition Publications

Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in young children. By studying 240 Bangladeshi mother-infant pairs, it was observed that, while the community of microbes present in the nasopharynges of infants was not associated with later onset of ARI, maternal genetic polymorphisms on a gene involved in shaping the composition of human breast milk influences the occurrence of ARIs.

In collaboration with the University of Leipzig, Nestlé Research explored the association of Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) in the breast milk of 143 mothers with maternal and infant parameters including infant and child growth from 3 months to 7 years of age.

Visceral or intra-organ fat (VIF) accumulation may be a better indication of cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk than BMI. The link with increased disease risk may be through dysfunctional adiposity, leading to excess ectopic fat deposition and hence inflammatory and adipokine dysregulation, insulin resistance, and atherogenic dyslipidaemia.

It has become increasingly more evident during Covid-19 pandemic times that nutrition plays a significant role for the healthy development of the child, starting already from pregnancy.

The year 2020 has been a year where a new virus, SARS-CoV-2, changed the world. With that, the food chain was challenged in many parts of the world. Ensuring adequate nutrition to secure the growth and well-being, particularly of infants and young children, met new obstacles.

Adequate calcium intake is critical in school-age years to ensure adequate bone mineralisation; however, the effects of adequacy in childhood on bone health in later years is not well documented. In this study, researchers sought to determine whether milk intake during childhood and adolescence is associated with adult bone mass (bone mineral content), bone mineral density, and the incidence of osteoporotic fracture.

Food literacy is a promising approach to support healthy dietary behaviours in adolescents. However, adolescents' perspectives on food literacy and the impact it could have on their dietary behaviours are not well understood. This study explored adolescents' perspectives on the potential for food literacy to influence their dietary behaviours.

The latter half of school-age years represents the fastest period of bone growth and calcium accretion in an individual's life, after which bine mineralisation only declines. This clinical report reviews all major aspects of normal bone acquisition in infants, children, and adolescents and discusses factors affecting bone health in this age group.

Childhood and adolescent obesity is high and continues to increase globally, and some evidence suggests that overweight and obesity may affect cognitive skills and school performance. The aim of this review was to find out if healthy weight interventions can improve thinking skills (executive function) and school performance in children and teenagers with obesity.

School-age years constitute a key period in the development of executive functions - a set of higher-order cognitive processes involved in the control and organisation of information to serve goal-directed behaviours. Several brain and neurodevelopmental processes peak during this age period.

Physical activity (PA) and fitness are increasingly receiving attention based on the potential role or their relationship in influencing cognitive function and academic achievement, particularly in school-age children.

Deficiencies of micronutrients, particularly in children, remain a worldwide problem. Globally, more than 800 million people are undernourished, and >2 billion people have one or more chronic micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs).

This paper reviews the current state of nutrition in adolescent populations, starting at 10 years of age. It highlights that adolescents, comprised of 10–19-year-olds, form the largest generation of young people in our history, and that of the estimated 1.8 billion adolescents in the world, 90% reside in low- and middle-income countries.

Early adolescence (10-15) towards the end of the school-age years and late adolescence (15-24 years of age) or emerging adulthood are critical time periods for achieving optimal and long-term health and nutrition.

As more and more baby-boomers are now reaching retirement age the consequences of the current demographic shift will gain momentum during the next decade thereby exerting increasing pressure on the social systems of most Western Countries and especially on the health care sector. In this context the prevention of loss of autonomy and care dependency will be utmost importance

Cognitive impairment is considered one of the greatest challenge for health and social care in the XXIst century. Due to reduction of premature death and increasing life expectancy, the prevalence of cognitive impairment is expected to increase both in high income and medium-low income countries.

There is consensus from experts from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore that in formula-fed infants at high allergy risk, the use of a clinically proven partially hydrolysed formula may be useful.

Recently published data from the 20-year follow-up of the GINI study showed that in formula-fed infants (exclusively or mixed feeding) at risk of allergies, feeding an extensively hydrolyzed casein (eHF-C) and a partially hydrolyzed whey (pHF-W) formula during the first 4 months of life reduced the risk of eczema and asthma up to young adulthood.

Early life is characterized by development, including microbiome and immune maturation, with age-appropriate transitions. Given their importance for later health, early life nutrition is an important modulator for being on an optimal maturation trajectory.

During NNI Symposium at the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) hybrid congress 2021, leading experts in paediatric allergy and immunology discussed the importance of the early-life microbiome in driving immune maturation and preventing allergy. They explored key evidence supporting the benefits of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in priming the immune system and promoting infant health, particularly in cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA).