STW – Metabolic programming effects of dietary carbohydrates is a four-year project (started on 17 February 2015) aiming for a better understanding of the impact dietary carbohydrates have during infancy and the transition period between lactation and the introduction to solid foods.
Early-life Nutrition is important for nutritional programming that can affect the risk for obesity and metabolic diseases later in life. The project takes a first step to gain basic knowledge on dietary carbohydrate requirements early in life, and how the type and form of these carbohydrates contribute to the prevention of obesity and metabolic disease. Since our current understanding of nutritional programming through carbohydrates is limited, results may already, at an early stage, contribute to the development of improved products for infants and young children.
- In a staged approach, the project covers the following objectives:
- Investigate the programming effects of carbohydrates primarily introduced during the milk-to-food transition period of infants and how these differently affect metabolic health in adults.
- Delineate to what extend programming by carbohydrates is differing between females and males.
- Examine early-life carbohydrate programming in time (until middle age).
- Develop and validate technology allowing for the non-invasive analysis of substrate metabolism at the whole body level.
The “Metabolic programming effects of dietary carbohydrates project” is funded by the Dutch Technology Foundation (STW) and brings together partners from academia with stakeholders from industry and non-profit organizations. It is coordinated by Human and Animal Physiology of Wageningen University, The Netherlands.