Grant: Team Grant: DOHaD - Implications for Men, Women, Boys and Girls

Babies who are born with a high amount of body fat carry this excess fat through childhood. Children who are obese often have excess abdominal fat, high blood sugar, elevated cholesterol and blood pressure, which increases their risk of diabetes and heart disease as adults. When these are present together, it is called the "Metabolic Syndrome". These risk factors may begin to develop early in life and are influenced by both "nature" (e.g. genetics) and "nurture" (e.g. a mother's diet during pregnancy, childhood diet, and physical activity). Measurement of dietary intake using questionnaires have some limitations and new biological measures have greater specificity to reflect dietary intake. We have brought together 4 multi-ethnic Canadian cohorts of pregnant mothers and their babies. The goal of our research program is to uncover markers in the blood of the pregnant mother, and child (from birth through 5 years), that reflect dietary intake and can forecast a child's likelihood of developing the "Metabolic Syndrome", a strong risk state for future diabetes and heart disease. We anticipate that these findings will strengthen the scientific evidence underpinning dietary guidelines for pregnancy and early childhood. It will also provide novel data to guide future research, and have direct relevance for clinical practice, and public health policy aimed at the prevention of heart and lung disease, and their risk factors in early life.