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 […]
Nutrition Research
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 […]
Does How One Remembers Being Fed As a Child Influence How One Feeds Children?
Children’s eating behaviors develop with influence from parent feeding styles, practices, and beliefs. Researchers examining childhood eating behaviors including ACNC faculty Taren Swindle, are interested in how classroom feeding practices employed by early education staff, who also interact with children during mealtimes, associate with their own childhood experiences. To examine how classroom feeding practices are […]
Effects of Short-term Supervised Exercise Training on Liver Fat in Adolescents with Obesity
Center investigators Drs. Eva C. Diaz, Xiawei Ou, Elisabet Børsheim, were part of a team that recently published results from a 4-week RCT examining the effects of short-term supervised exercise training on liver fat in adolescents with obesity. The supervised exercise [high-intensity interval training (HIIT)] had beneficial effects on markers of cardiometabolic health, and after limiting analysis […]
Association Between Adiposity During Pregnancy and Offspring’s Physical Activity – Modified by Offspring Sex
Maternal obesity during pregnancy increases risk of obesity and disease in the offspring across the lifespan. Animal models indicate that children born to mothers with obesity are less physically active -however, such studies in humans are complex requiring long follow-ups. Investigators at the ACNC analyzed data from The Glowing Study to evaluate the association between […]
Banana Genotype and Ripening Method Affect Carotenoid Content and Bio-accessibility
Biofortification programs aimed at reducing vitamin A deficiency in vulnerable populations focus on staple crops, such as bananas. What is not well known is how banana’s genetics and ripening methods effect provitamin A carotenoid content and perhaps most critically, how much of it is available for absorption (bioaccessibility). A collaborative team led by Massimo Iorizzo […]