Welcome  to  Public  Health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. Research  tells  us  that  babies who  gain  weight  rapidly  have twice  the  risk  of  obesity  compared to  babies  with  more  gradual  weight  gain. But  researchers  know  little  about  how  much  weight  gain in  babies  is  fat  as  opposed  to  lean  tissue. University  of  Minnesota  researcher  Ellen  Demath, using  the  latest  technology, aims  to  find  out. Her  project  is  titled  the  Minnesota  Infant  Nutrition and  Neurodevelopment  Obesity  Study,  or  Minnows. What  we're  doing  with  the  minnow  study is  somewhat  unique  in  that  we  are using  a  new  state  of the  art  piece  of  equipment  called  the  Pea  pod, which  is  a  piece  of  equipment  then  can  measure total  body  fat  and  total lean  body  mass  in  very  young  infants, non  invasively,  safely  and  quickly. Death  hopes  the  Minow  study  will  shed  light on  specific  nutritional  recommendations  for  infants. One  of  the  aspects  of  the  Minow  study  is to  determine  what  are some  optimal  nutritional  strategies to  support  the  growth  and  development  of premature  infants  without  negatively impacting  their  long  term  health with  another  public  health  moment. I'm  John  Finnegan.