APPLIED NUTRITION

• Staff
  • Laboratory Head
  • Scientific Staff
  • Research Operations Manager
  • Research Staff
  • Administrative Staff
  • Students
• Goals
• Research Projects
  1. Nutrition during Pregnancy
  2. The TIGGA Study

STAFF

Laboratory Head

Scientific Staff

Research Operations Manager

Research Staff

Jacqueline Aldis

jacqueline.aldis@health.sa.gov.au

Josephine Collins

jo.collins2@health.sa.gov.au

Heather Garreffa

heather.garreffa@health.sa.gov.au

Helen Loudis

helen.loudis@health.sa.gov.au

Administrative Staff

Students

GOALS

The goal of the Applied Nutrition group is to conduct high quality research of nutritional interventions to enable children born at term or prematurely to achieve optimal health, development and growth.

Our key outcomes relate to:

• optimal neurological development
• 
  
• appropriate growth
• 
  
• a robust immune system (that is, an immune system that favours protection of the child from infection as well as reducing susceptibility to allergy), and
• 
  
• translation of research into clinical practice through conduct of systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines

We are based at both the Women's and Children's Hospital and at Flinders Medical Centre.

Dietary n-3 (omega 3) fatty acids, in particular docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have the capacity to influence aspects of all three outcomes and are a major focus of our research.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

1. Nutrition during pregnancy: The DHA to Optimize Mother Infant Outcome (DOMInO Trial)

Many epidemiological studies demonstrate associations between high fish and seafood intake during pregnancy and improved health for both mothers and children, namely a lower prevalence of postnatal depression and higher developmental scores. It is hypothesised that n-3 LCPUFA are the "magic" ingredients in fish that drive these associations. We tested this hypothesis through a large scale intervention study in which women were randomly allocated a supplement of fish oil rich in n-3 LCPUFA or a placebo from 20 weeks of pregnancy until birth. 2399 women around Australia participated in the largest study of this kind.

We found that the use of DHA-rich fish oil capsules taken during pregnancy did not result in lower levels of postpartum depression in mothers and did not improve cognitive and language scores of the offspring during early childhood.

We are following these children at 4 years of age, funded by NHMRC, to determine whether any effect is evident at an age where more specific cognitive tests can be undertaken. This is important as some studies had shown no difference in infancy but improvement with DHA became evident at an older age.

Capsules used in the DOMInO trial

2. The TIGGA (Tolerance of Infant Goat Milk Formula and Growth Assessment) study

Most infant formulas have been manufactured from cow milk but goat milk infant formula has also been used widely in Australasia. There are differences in nutritional composition between goat milk and cow milk based infant formula but little is known about the growth and nutritional adequacy of infants fed goat milk based infant formula. We compared growth and nutritional status of infants fed formula based on goat milk or cow milk in an intervention study with comparison to breastfed infants.

We found that the growth and nutritional status of infants fed goat milk formula were comparable to infants fed cow milk formula, but not surprisingly, the growth patterns of both formula groups differed from breast fed infants.

Baby from the TIGGA study having a blood sample taken