Protein Intake during the First Two Years of Life and Its Association with Growth and Risk of Overweight
Section of Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(8), 1742; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081742
Received: 6 July 2018 / Revised: 10 August 2018 / Accepted: 12 August 2018 / Published: 14 August 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition in the First 1000 Days)
Growth patterns early in life could exert a long-term impact on overweight and obesity development. Among all potential manipulative factors, infant diet is one of the most influential and could affect growth and subsequent health status during adolescence and adulthood. Dietary protein, as an important macronutrient in infants’ diet, has been of special interest to researchers. Compared with human milk, infant formula tends to have a higher protein content and is associated with greater weight gain and later-in-life obesity risk. However, the effect of protein from other sources on infant growth trajectories during complementary feeding is not clear. Emerging research suggests that meat protein during early complementary feeding promotes linear growth while not increasing risk of overweight compared with dairy protein; and the gut microbiota might be a mediator between protein quality and growth trajectories. This review addresses the current knowledge of protein intake from birth to 24 months and its relationship with growth and risk of overweight.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
protein; complementary feeding; growth; the gut microbiome
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Tang, M. Protein Intake during the First Two Years of Life and Its Association with Growth and Risk of Overweight. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 1742. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081742
AMA Style
Tang M. Protein Intake during the First Two Years of Life and Its Association with Growth and Risk of Overweight. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018; 15(8):1742. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081742
Chicago/Turabian StyleTang, Minghua. 2018. "Protein Intake during the First Two Years of Life and Its Association with Growth and Risk of Overweight" Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 15, no. 8: 1742. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081742
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit