Frontiers in Nutritional Science – serie

This book provides a review of the roles of specific nutrients in maintaining the immune response and host protection against infection. It also considers the influence of various factors, such as exercise and ageing, on the interaction between nutrition and immune function. The main emphasis is on humans, but comparative mammalian data are also presented.The contents include methods for studying nutrient-immune function interactions, the impact of undernutrition on immune function and infection, the influences of fatty acids, amino acids, antioxidant vitamins, and various minerals on immunity, immunological effects of changes throughout the life cycle, and public health policy implications.

Over the last decade epidemiological studies have suggested that the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke mortality and hypertension is, in part, related to the environment encountered during fetal life. In particular, maternal undernutrition during pregnancy has been highlighted as a causal factor in the long-term programming of disease risk.This book, which brings together the perspectives of leading researchers from Europe, the USA and Australasia, provides the reader with a detailed account of the evidence for and against the nutritional programming of human disease, and considers the biological basis of programming. The book addresses a topic of great current interest and consists of three sections: programming the fetus; programming human disease; and the biological basis of nutritional programming.