Strong plea for fully effective folic effective folic acid fortification draws attention to National Diet and Nutrition Survey data revealing that almost 90% of UK women of child-bearing age have blood folate levels below those necessary to prevent neural tube defects Healthier Pregnancies, Better Lives

THE POWER OF PLAY - Building A Creative Britain - ITV News Children's Alliance youtu.be/TNWRTNyL4yo?fe… via YouTube

For anyone with an interest in promoting the health & wellbeing of the next generation, tickets are now available for The Voice for Children Annual Conference at The Crypt on the Green, 4th July 2024, London ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/clerk…

Nutrition in Medicine — great to see NEJM embark on a new review article series recognising the importance of nutrition for health across the lifecourse | New England Journal of Medicine nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

Delivering new priorities for women’s health in 2024: great to see The BMJ publishing the case for a new national focus on preconception health as an important step in making preparing for pregnancy a more routine part of life UK Preconception Partnership bmj.com/content/385/bm…

Children from low-income families who grew up near a Sure Start centre performed up to three grades better at GCSEs than those further away: for every £1 spent, there were benefits to attending children worth £1.09, solely through school outcomes IFS ifs.org.uk/publications/s…

Eating behaviour interventions to improve dietary patterns among pregnant women may need to start as early as preconception, incorporating strategies to manage uncontrolled eating: our new Singapore data just published doi.org/10.1016/j.appe…

The Obesity Mission is one of the key healthcare missions identified in the UK govt 2021 Life Sciences Vision & has just been published; the modest resource in no way matches the huge impact on individuals & healthcare, & there is no mention of prevention gov.uk/government/pub…

“What is the evidence base for plausible biological mechanisms for health impacts of ultra-processed foods (UPF)?” Good to have been involved in the roundtable providing accessible science advice for policymakers - now published at gov.uk/government/pub… Public Policy|Southampton (PPS)

Adolescents generally have little understanding of concepts related to how health behaviours before, during & after pregnancy have lasting effects on the health/wellbeing of their future children; new systematic review LifeLab Liggins Institute doi.org/10.1017/S20401…

Involuntary tobacco smoke exposures from conception to 18 years increase midlife cardiometabolic disease risk: a 40-year longitudinal study | Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease | Cambridge Core - bit.ly/3PNFd2p

Environmentally protective diets may come with trade-offs for micronutrient status: systematic review of impact of consuming an environmentally protective diet concludes risk of inadequate intakes of zinc, calcium, vits A, B12 & D more likely to increase doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcn…

Further offspring follow up age 10 yrs of maternal fish oil supplementation trial in pregnancy (COPSAC2010) now reports increased child BMI & risk of being overweight, a tendency of increased %fat & higher metabolic syndrome score ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-…

Participation in a US universal free school meals program was associated with a modest decrease in obesity prevalence among students at more than 3,500 California schools; the UK should act to provide universal free school meals for children’s well-being doi.org/10.1542/peds.2…

Lower job control, a work-related stressor, may be associated with a longer time to pregnancy, pointing to the importance of improving working conditions as a means of improving worker health, including fertility doi.org/10.1016/j.fert…

Phthalates, widely used in personal care products & food packaging, could be linked to 24,000-120,000 preterm births in the US in 2018, potentially costing $1.6-8.1 billion in medical expenses over the lifetime of the children - new US data doi.org/10.1016/S2542-…

An important report - with clear recommendations that need to be acted on

Trigonelline, naturally found in coffee & fenugreek could help slow age-related muscle loss; our new NIHR Southampton BRC MRCLEC Vincenzo sorrentino @feigelab research - findings discovered in humans, tested in worms/rodents & then studied further in people nature.com/articles/s4225…

Understanding pregnancy: Accelerating the development of new therapies for pregnancy-specific
conditions - great to see the new Academy of Medical Sciences report acmedsci.ac.uk/file-download/…

Experts are calling for a population-wide strategy to reduce damaging childhood experiences.

Our BRC's Keith Godfrey, MBE contributed to the new report published by a cross-party parliamentary group.

He warns the 'cost of inaction is substantial'. ⚠️📢

southamptonbrc.nihr.ac.uk/post/urgent-ac…