A Child's Nutrition and Epigenetics

Abstract

Studies have shown a dramatic increase in the incidence and the prevalence of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disorders over the last several decades. Environmental triggers and nutrition are considered major contributors to this increase. The first 1,000 days of life, which is the period between conception and the first 2 years of age, is considered the time for environmental factors, such as nutrition, to exert their positive and most crucial effects on a child's health. Nutrigenomics, the study of how genes and food components interact, looks into diet-altering disease development by modulating processes involved with the onset, progression, and severity of disease. These factors affecting the development of these chronic diseases are thought to be mediated by epigenetic mechanisms, which are heritable and reversible, and carry genetic information without changing the nucleotide sequence of the genome and are also mediated by maternal and postnatal nutrition.