Professor Lynch’s seminar placed the context of nutrition and in particular early life nutrition in an overall population health perspective. He traced some of the evidence for the historical importance of nutrition on improvements in population health in several countries since the 1850s. He then traced the links between the role adult diet plays in various chronic diseases, through the evidence suggesting the developmental origins of adult nutrition, and discussed how the current research focus of his early life nutrition group at UniSA is attempting to characterize diet in children under 3 and examine associations with physiological risk factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as cognitive functioning at ages 15-16
2. Why bother about child diet? A population health perspective over the lifecourse John Lynch Professor of Public Health Epidemiology NHMRC Australia Fellow University of South Australia University of Bristol
14. Average Height of Military Conscripts in Europe (1960-1990) Steckel (2000) Height (cm) France Germany Sweden Netherlands Denmark Norway Italy Spain Portugal
26. Saturated fat restricted diet from infancy to age 15 = 1mmHg lower systolic blood pressure Hypertension (2009)
27. Blood pressure measured 25 years previously was more important than current BP for CHD; both recent and past important for stroke mortality. Both past and current levels of cholesterol are equally important for CHD but not stroke. Boshuizen, et al. AJE (2006)