One study conducted by Dr. Colin Kay and colleagues examined how a class of bioactives found in blueberries are absorbed, metabolized, and excreted by our bodies after they are eaten. Investigators were particularly interested if processing the whole blueberries (i.e. food processing) would change how the bioactives were metabolized. Fresh blueberries were therefore compared to […]
Nutrition Research
Kids Can Get Moving to Improve Balance
Balance is essential for children to develop motor skills, prevent falls, and effectively perform various daily activities. However, what influences balance in children is not well understood. To explore this, researchers at the ACNC measured balance, body composition, physical fitness, and daily physical activity in 219 school-aged children (ages 7-11). Balance was evaluated using a […]
Bioactives in Breast Milk Depend on More than Just Mom’s Diet
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]