#568: Does the Maternal Diet Impact Risk of ADHD & Autism? – David Horner, PhD
Sigma Nutrition Radio
Danny Lennon
4.8 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
To what extent can maternal nutrition during pregnancy influence a child's later cognitive or behavioural development?
While genetic and environmental factors are known to contribute to neurodevelopmental outcomes such as ADHD and autism, growing attention is being paid to the potential role of prenatal exposures, including dietary patterns. Yet, evidence in this area remains limited, and causality is difficult to establish.
One recent study aimed to explore this question by analysing how maternal diet quality during pregnancy (specifically, adherence to a Western-style dietary pattern) related to neurodevelopmental outcomes in children assessed clinically at age 10.
In this episode, Dr. David Horner discusses the findings from this prospective cohort study, the use of metabolic markers to complement dietary data, and the implications for future research into modifiable prenatal risk factors.
About The Guest
Dr. David Horner is a researcher in maternal nutrition and cardiometabolic health, based at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is also a qualified medical doctor from Queen's University of Belfast.
His research is driven by a keen interest in modifiable determinants of health, aiming to better understand and improve health outcomes.
Having worked as a medical doctor for 2 years in the UK, in 2017 Dr. Horner then moved to Copenhagen, where he completed a Master's in Global Health and a PhD examining the impact of maternal dietary patterns during pregnancy on child health.
Timestamps
- [02:47] Introduction to the study
- [07:08] Strengths and findings of the study
- [21:17] Genetic factors and gene-environment interactions
- [25:42] Metabolomics and potential mechanisms
- [30:12] Interpreting the study's findings
- [38:03] Future research directions
- [42:50] Key ideas segment (Sigma Nutrition Premium)
Related Resources
- Subscribe to Sigma Nutrition Premium
- Join the Sigma email newsletter for free
- Enroll in the next cohort of our Applied Nutrition Literacy course
- See Sigma's "recommended resources" list
- Email: david.horner@dbac.dk
- Study: Horner et al., 2025 – A western dietary pattern during pregnancy is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and adolescence
- David's LinkedIn post about the study (with discussion in the comments)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio. This is episode 568 of the podcast. My name is Danny |
| 0:06.9 | Lennon and you are very welcome to the show. Today we're going to be talking with Dr. David |
| 0:12.4 | Horner, who is a researcher in maternal nutrition and child development based at the University |
| 0:17.2 | of Copenhagen in Denmark. He's also a qualified medical doctor from Queens University, Belfast. |
| 0:23.6 | And he has a variety of research interests, but his most recent work has been involved in this |
| 0:29.6 | area of maternal nutrition and specifically looking at how that can affect neurodevelopment |
| 0:35.1 | disorders, specifically looking at ADHD and autism spectrum conditions. |
| 0:40.3 | And so we're going to be talking about this area, focusing specifically on the recent study, which was published in Nature Metabolism, |
| 0:49.3 | titled, A Western Dietary Pattern During Pregnancy is Associated with Neurodevelopmental neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and adolescence. |
| 0:56.0 | And this study generated a lot of interest and discussion afterwards. |
| 1:02.0 | We're going to walk through exactly the background to the study, what was in there, some of the potential implications of it, |
| 1:08.0 | as well as a few of the really nice aspects of the actual |
| 1:11.3 | methodology and how they carry this out. So there's a variety of really interesting things within |
| 1:15.8 | this that those of you who enjoy nutrition science, I think, will really enjoy. There's also the |
| 1:22.0 | ability to read the full text of this study by going to the link that's in the resources that's linked |
| 1:28.6 | either in the description box where you're currently listening or over on the study notes page |
| 1:32.5 | clicking there you should be able to see the study I'll also put some other links |
| 1:37.3 | for it to post David has made about the study that includes some discussion with |
| 1:41.7 | the comments as well as where you can find him online. |
| 1:45.4 | Also, if you are a Sigma Nutrition premium subscriber, you'll be getting a set of detailed |
| 1:49.5 | study notes to accompany this episode as well as a full episode transcript. |
| 1:54.2 | If you're listening over on the public feed of the podcast and you would like to get those |
... |
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