ABOUT BOOK

The first 1,000 days, from conception to 2 years of age, is a critical window of growth and development. Exposures to dietary, environmental, hormonal, and other stressors ~during this period have been associated with an increased risk of adverse health ~outcomes. Researchers using cell culture, animal models, and humans have identified ~this time as a period of rapid physiological change and plasticity with significant ~potential for lasting effects. As such, interventions during the first 1,000 days will ~have the greatest impact on outcomes, particularly in low- and middle-income countries ~where the need is greatest. ~To date, there is no single resource that compiles our knowledge of the biology ~of the first 1,000 days. Our knowledge and understanding of the biology behind ~the first 1,000 days is still limited. This greater understanding is helping us inform ~effective nutrition policy and programming. The strength of this book lies in its ~cross- disciplinary nature that encompasses the full range of human biology, providing ~a more holistic perspective during this critical time frame. Moreover, we have ~broadened the scope and included important periods before and after the 1,000 days. ~We have designed this book as a comprehensive resource for those involved in ~global health and nutrition policy, strategy, programming, or research. This book ~will also be a resource for students learning about nutrition and health across the ~1,000 days. The book includes an exceptional group of contributors who are experts ~in their given fields. As biology underlies the core of each discussion, it allows ~the readers to answer the what and why, and, we hope, the how for new discovery ~research and more effective interventions. ~Each chapter in this volume provides insight into a specific life stage, disease ~state, nutrient, and stressor in the first 1,000 days. As such, each chapter can be read ~independently, providing a comprehensive overview of that subject. However, there ~is continuity between chapters allowing this collection of chapters to be read cover ~to cover. The first chapters set the stage, providing a succinct resource to understand ~the well-established biological mechanisms that underlie growth regulation and ~nutrient recommendations throughout the first 1,000 days. The next chapters move ~on to the evidence behind nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions ~to combat adverse outcomes and disease states in the first 1,000 days. This book ~also features emerging research areas, such as the gut microbiome, environmental ~enteric dysfunction, and the role of epigenetics in health and development. The final ~chapter pushes the boundaries of discovery research, exploring novel areas such as ~proteomics and metabolomics, and how insults such as environmental enteric dysfunction ~affect metabolism in the first 1,000 days. ~We approached this book with the ambition to shed more light on the biology during ~1,000 days, but there was also a need to put the biology into a broader context of ~nutrition and health. There are still many gaps in our understanding of the biology ~of the first 1,000 days. It is only by bridging this knowledge gap through research ~that we can inform effective interventions to improve outcomes during the first 1,000 ~days.