'You are what your mother ate'
Updated on 01 July 2008
Pregnant or breastfeeding mothers who live on a diet of junk food could be condemning their children to lifelong obesity and ill-health, experts have warned.
A study suggests that a mother's poor diet can do long-lasting and irreversible damage to her child. The effects include obesity, raised levels of cholesterol, and the risk of diabetes.
Although the research was conducted on rats, scientists say the findings are very likely to apply to humans. The results fit in with observed patterns of children's weight reflecting that of their parents.
Dr Stephanie Bayol, one of the scientists from the Royal Veterinary College, London, said: "It seems that a mother's diet whilst pregnant and breastfeeding is very important for the long-term health of her child... We always say 'you are what you eat'. In fact it may also be true that 'you are what your mother ate'.
"This does not mean that obesity and poor health is inevitable and it is important that we take care of ourselves and lead a healthy lifestyle. But it does mean that mothers must eat responsibly whilst pregnant."
Dr Bayol and colleague Professor Neil Stickland studied the offspring of rats fed a diet of foods such doughnuts, muffins, biscuits, crisps and sweets during pregnancy and lactation. Their progress was compared with that of young rats whose mothers were given a normal healthy diet.
The "junk food generation" of rats had unusually high levels of cholesterol, as well as raised triglycerides, a harmful type of fat found in the bloodstream. Both are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
The animals also had higher than average levels of glucose and insulin, marking them out as being susceptible to type 2 diabetes. Even when they were switched to a healthy diet, the rats continued to have health problems which lasted beyond adolescence.
They stayed fatter than rats whose mothers had eaten healthily. And crucially much of this extra fat surrounded the the kidneys, which is another diabetes risk factor.
Female offspring were especially badly affected, said the researchers, whose findings are reported today in The Journal of Physiology. They produced high levels of glucose and the appetite-promoting hormone leptin, making them more prone to obesity than their male siblings.
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