Themes and Structure

The interaction of themes within EarlyNutrition:
The research programme of EarlyNutrition is focused on the contemporary key hypotheses of early nutrition programming. To achieve their objectives, researchers will conduct animal studies, observational studies in large concurrent populations, and randomized controlled human intervention trials, to obtain evidence for the mechanisms of early nutrition, effects and effect sizes acting on the origins of obesity:

• What are the physiological mechanisms of early programming that increase long-term adiposity risk?
• Which dietary components can be identified that have a relevant effect?
• Can sensitive periods for early programming be identified during development?
• Are there specific metabolic or epigenetic markers that reflect early programming of later adiposity?

Data and project management as well as communication activities ensure the strengthened scientific basis will provide an improved evidence base for policy decisions and practical recommendations on optimal nutrition in key target groups.