Grant: Operating Grant: Program. Grants in Food & Hlth -Pop Hlth research...

A mother's nutritional choices while pregnant may have a great influence on her baby's development, both in the womb, and during infancy. There is evidence that what a mother eats during pregnancy may interact with her genes to affect her child's susceptibility to poor health outcomes including childhood obesity, pre-diabetes, allergy, and asthma, which share common causes. It is also known that what an infant eats can change his or her intestinal bacteria, which may influence the development of these poor outcomes. To clarify these relationships, we will bring together four birth cohorts which have enrolled mothers and their children from across Canada, across income levels, and from diverse ethnic groups (i.e. South Asian, Aboriginal). We will study the interplay among 4 factors: gene expression, maternal and infant nutrition, and the infant gut bacteria; and the role they play in childhood health. Our findings will provide a solid evidence base to inform Dietary Guidelines in pregnancy, the development of randomized clinical trials to provide additional high quality evidence, and will be relevant to diverse and high-risk populations of Canada.