Abstract
Nourishment of the foetus and child in the early period of development influences the health condition of the individual later in life. The basis of this phenomenon consists in nutrigenomic processes where a lack or surplus of nutritional factors activates the expression of genes and thus preparation of the body for induction of protective or pathological metabolic processes.
In this paper, the author summarises the epigenetic mechanism of the effect of early nourishment, certain elements thereof prior to and after the birth of a child, certain aspects of the mechanism and, primarily, the possibility of preventing negative aspects of metabolic programming. The paper is concluded with consi-deration of applications of certain results of recently conducted studies focused on the nutritional state and nourishment of children at an early age and metabolic programming.