Molecular nutrition in life course perspective: Pinpointing metabolic pathways to target during periconception

Abstract

Lifecourse nutrition encompasses nourishment from early development into parenthood. From preconception and pregnancy to childhood, late adolescence, and reproductive years, life course nutrition explores links between dietary exposures and health outcomes in current and future generations from a public health perspective, usually addressing lifestyle behaviours, reproductive well‐being and maternal‐child health strategies. However, nutritional factors that play a role in conceiving and sustaining new life might also require a molecular perspective and recognition of critical interactions between specific nutrients and relevant biochemical pathways. The present perspective summarises evidence about the links between diet during periconception and next‐generation health and outlines the main metabolic networks involved in nutritional biology of this sensitive time frame.

Nutrition in a lifecourse perspective: From molecular aspects to public health approaches

“…The importance of diet in the preconception years has increasingly been acknowledged the last 10 years. Ostojic et al (2023) Helle et al, 2023;Thorisdottir et al, 2023). As commented in the Global Nutrition Report (2020), there is also a call for nutrition equity sensitive policies.…”

“…Since its establishment in 2018, the Priority Research Centre for Lifecourse Nutrition at the University of Agder has been committed to understand and improve diet and health relations from a lifecourse perspective. Devoting this Special Issue to current advancements in the subdiscipline of lifecourse nutrition in our Centre (Bjørkkjaer et al, 2023;Helle et al, 2023;Ostojic et al, 2023;Valen et al, 2023) but also across the global research arena (Flor-Alemany et al, 2023;Mai et al, 2023;Shinsugi & Takimoto, 2023;Thorisdottir et al, 2023) could potentially pave the path towards enhancing health outcomes for both present and future generations. This Special Issue covers a variety of topics related to nutrition from a lifecourse perspective, addressing diet in sensitive periods (preconception, pregnancy and infancy/toddlerhood), and spanning from molecular nutrition to food environments and settings and gatekeepers of diet in these sensitive periods.…”

“…Since its establishment in 2018, the Priority Research Centre for Lifecourse Nutrition at the University of Agder has been committed to understand and improve diet and health relations from a lifecourse perspective. Devoting this Special Issue to current advancements in the subdiscipline of lifecourse nutrition in our Centre (Bjørkkjaer et al, 2023 ; Helle et al, 2023 ; Ostojic et al, 2023 ; Valen et al, 2023 ) but also across the global research arena (Flor‐Alemany et al, 2023 ; Mai et al, 2023 ; Shinsugi & Takimoto, 2023 ; Thorisdottir et al, 2023 ) could potentially pave the path towards enhancing health outcomes for both present and future generations.…”

“…The importance of diet in the preconception years has increasingly been acknowledged the last 10 years. Ostojic et al ( 2023 ) summarize the current evidence of the molecular perspective during preconception and next‐generation health, outlining the main metabolic networks involved in nutritional biology of this sensitive period. Valen et al ( 2023 ) address the preconception phase on a more behavioural notion, by exploring young adults' awareness of preconception nutritional health.…”