Breast milk provides babies with a mix of vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and fats in an easily digestible form – and it can also be a source of bioactive components that benefit a growing infant’s health and development. What mom eats can modify the type of carbohydrates and bioactive components (carotenoids and polyphenols) found in her […]
ACNC News
Neuroimaging Insights on Maternal Nutrition during Pregnancy and Offspring Brain Development
Maternal nutrition during pregnancy is increasingly recognized for its importance in shaping offspring brain development, impacting structure and function that further influence long-term neuropsychological, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes in children. Recent advancements in brain imaging technology provide new insights into fetal, neonatal, and pediatric brain morphometry (shape and size) and function. A recent literature review […]
Microbes Colonizing Offspring’s Gut May Depend on Mom’s Diet
Research increasingly focuses on how the gut microbiome—the collection of microbes in our digestive system—develop, change and contribute to health. Investigators at the ACNC, led by Dr. Umesh Wankhade, used a mouse model to explore how a maternal diet, consumed before and during pregnancy, affects the gut microbiome of the following generation. Specifically, their team examined […]
The Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center turned 30!
The Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center celebrated its 30th anniversary with a symposium held on Tuesday, October 29, 2024. The event brought together esteemed speakers to share Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center’s history, ongoing research, and future directions in parental and child nutrition. The symposium commenced with remarks from key stakeholders in nutrition and agriculture, including Senator […]
Seeking an Easier Way to Assess Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Kids
Cardiorespiratory fitness is a key indicator of health. However, measuring peak oxygen consumption needed to determine cardiorespiratory fitness can be difficult to measure in children, who may not be able to, or willing to, push themselves and give a maximum effort during cardiopulmonary exercise testing. That’s why investigators at the ACNC explored if another measure, […]
Child Temperament Shaped by Maternal Psychiatric Symptoms, Family Environment and Infant Feeding
An infant or child’s temperament influences their behavior and the way they interact with others. Newer research suggests that maternal affection and environmental factors, including feeding method, can influence infant temperament. Researchers at the ACNC investigated how maternal factors (affection and psychiatric symptoms) and child factors (environment and early nutrition) affected child’s temperament for the […]
Reviewing the Effect of Early Infant Diet on Neurodevelopment
Human milk consumption (being breastfed) during infancy is thought to give a slight cognitive advantage throughout early childhood compared to formula, independent of maternal education and intelligence scores. However, there are relatively few studies on the impact of diet on the structure and function of the developing infant brain. A recently published systematic review from […]
Dietary Modification of Platelet Activation
The correlation between obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) has long been understood – and with CVD comes increased risk of heart attack or stroke, occurring when platelets in the blood form clots that block blood flow. Less is known on the impact of an obesogenic diet on platelet activation or function. ACNC Investigators aimed to […]
ACNC Breezes National Nutrition Conference
The Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Research Center is hosting a symposium at the American Society for Nutrition’s 2024 conference, titled, “ACNC: 30 Years of Advancing Nutrition Science Research for Maternal and Child Health” on July 2nd in Chicago. Throughout the conference, several ACNC faculty and staff will join the greater nutrition community to present innovative research at this […]
Meet the Trainee: Dr. Hailemariam “Haile” Abrha Assress
Upon entering Addis Ababa University (AAU) in Ethiopia, Hailemariam “Haile” Abrha Assress had hopes of becoming a pharmacist. After graduating with distinction near the top of his class in 2007, Haile stayed on as a Graduate assistant. He completed his master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2011 and continued to work for another five years […]