Nutrition Publications

Over the last few years, published reports document the presence of heavy metals in certain foods. This is of particular concern when these foods are consumed by infants and young children due to the potential effect of heavy metal exposure on neurological development even at low levels.

The growing global prevalence of allergy, particularly among children, poses a major public health problem and multipronged approaches for allergy prevention are under active investigation, focusing on key periods during pregnancy and early infancy.

While the gut microbiota was once called “the forgotten organ”, it is no longer forgotten. On the contrary, it is a hot topic for research, as documented by the rapidly increasing number of scientific papers on this subject as well as coverage in the lay press,

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which includes non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), are highly prevalent diseases associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Obesity/overweight and dietary intake are important risk factors.

The Ominous Quartet’ represents four glycaemic disorders at the centre of cardiovascular diseases in diabetes, including ambient hyperglycaemia, glycaemic variability (GV), postprandial glucose (PPG) excursions, and hypoglycaemic episodes. It is important to understand the interrelationship between these disorders, targets and thresholds for monitoring purposes, and impact on cardiovascular outcomes.

The first nutrient reference framework for plant-based beverages (PBB) has been published with the aim to guide the development and formulation of healthy plant-based beverages of high nutritional quality. Often viewed as equivalent to milk in nutritional value, many PBB are often low in protein and are fortified with varying amounts of calcium, and vitamins A and D.

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.