Research

We study how diet and its timing before, during and after pregnancy shape the metabolic health of mothers and children, drawing on longitudinal cohorts in Asia and Europe.

Themes

Chrono-nutrition and meal timing

Chrono-nutrition asks whether the timing of meals matters alongside what is eaten. We study night eating, day-to-day variability in meal times (“eating jetlag”), overnight fasting duration and time-restricted eating, in pregnant women and in adults, and how these relate to glycemia, gestational weight gain and metabolic health.

Key papers: eating jetlag and glucose in pregnancy (Am J Clin Nutr 2025); circadian-disruptive behaviours and glycemia (Diabetes Obes Metab 2026); timing and duration of time-restricted eating (BMJ Medicine 2026). All papers on this theme

Gestational diabetes and continuous glucose monitoring

Continuous glucose monitoring records glucose every few minutes over days, revealing patterns a single oral glucose tolerance test cannot. We use CGM metrics to describe glycemia across pregnancy, to predict gestational diabetes earlier, and to link diet and meal timing to glucose in everyday life.

Key papers: predicting gestational diabetes from CGM metrics (Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2025); early CGM patterns and later gestational diabetes (Diabetol Metab Syndr 2024); night eating and CGM measures (Clin Nutr 2023). All papers on this theme

Maternal diet and child health

Pregnancy is a window when diet may shape a child’s growth and metabolism for years. Following the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) framework, we study maternal diet quality, inflammatory potential, macronutrients, caffeine and environmental chemicals in relation to birth outcomes, body composition and cardiometabolic health in childhood.

Key papers: maternal diet and birth outcomes in seven European cohorts (PLOS Medicine 2021); diet and childhood adiposity (BMC Medicine 2021); cord plasma PFAS and child body composition (Environment International 2024). All papers on this theme

Evidence synthesis

We combine studies to answer questions single cohorts cannot, using dose-response meta-analysis, individual participant data pooled across cohorts, and umbrella reviews with network meta-analysis to compare fasting regimens head to head.

Key papers: intermittent fasting umbrella review and network meta-analysis (BMC Medicine 2024); maternal caffeine and low birth weight (BMC Medicine 2014); chrono-nutrition in pregnancy (Nutrients 2023). All papers on this theme

Your eating window

Move the sliders to see how meal times map onto the 24-hour day, and how long the overnight fast becomes.

Where we work

Cohorts and collaborators across Asia, Europe and Australia.

Cohorts and collaborations

GUSTO

Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes, a multi-ethnic Asian mother–offspring cohort.

S-PRESTO

Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes, following women from before conception.

Lifeways Cross-Generation

A three-generation family cohort in Ireland.

ALPHABET consortium

An EU-funded consortium pooling seven European birth cohorts in six countries.

Pregnancy cohorts in Taiwan and Singapore

Studies linking diet records, meal timing and continuous glucose monitoring across pregnancy.

TIGER cohort

Diet quality, cognition and frailty in community-dwelling older adults in Taiwan.

Methods

Longitudinal and growth modelling, mixed-effects models, latent class and cluster analysis, mediation and causal approaches, and meta-analysis (dose-response, network and individual participant data).

Dietary assessment with food records, 24-hour recalls and food frequency questionnaires, diet quality indices, dietary patterns and meal-timing metrics, alongside body composition and continuous glucose data.

Funding