Programming by Early Nutrition in Man

Whether early diet influences long-term health or achievement is a key question in nutrition. Such long-term consequences would invoke the concept of 'programming'--a more general process whereby a stimulus or insult at a critical period of development has lasting or lifelong significance. Data from small mammals and primates show that early nutrition may have potentially important long-term effects, for example on blood lipids, plasma insulin, obesity, atherosclerosis, behaviour and learning. Corresponding studies in man have been largely retrospective and difficult to interpret. The preterm infant is however an important model for human research because formal random assignment to early diet is practical. A…