Early-life Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health across the Life Course

This thesis describes the relation between nutrition and cardiometabolic health, with the focus on nutritional exposures in pregnancy and early childhood. A systematic review of the literature was performed to describe the effects of the nutrients lutein and choline on cardiometabolic health across the life course. Within the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective cohort study in the Netherlands, dietary patterns during pregnancy were studied, in relation to offspring body composition and cardiometabolic health. The relation between nutrition in early childhood with body composition and cardiometabolic health at school-age was assessed using different kind of nutritional exposures, namely nutrients (lutein), food groups (sugar-containing beverages) and dietary patterns (a priori- and a posterioiri-derived dietary patterns)