ABSTRACT
It has long been known that low-weight newborns (less than 2500 g) are more common in environments with the lowest socioeconomic status. After examining the dietary habits of mothers, it became clear that maternal nutrition plays a key role. For example, a rigorous study in East London found that mothers of such children had a dietary energy deficiency, but that deficit could be mostly attributed to lipids, a relationship implying logically a deficiency in essential fatty acids as well as lipidic vitamins such as vitamin D and E (Crawford et al. 1986). Although the hypothesis of essential fatty acid involvement was quickly confirmed by the analysis of maternal blood, the intervention of vitamins, in particular vitamin D, has still to be confirmed.
