How pregnant mums can make their babies fat
MUMS-to-be who over-indulge in cakes, sweets and crisps because they are “eating for two” could place their unborn child at risk of obesity.
New research suggests that a taste for junk food can be passed from mother to child even when the baby is still in the womb.
Experts also believe that the same sweet tooth can be passed on to babies through the mother’s milk.
As the child grows up, it could lead them to eat up to 26 per cent more calories at each meal than babies born
to healthy mums.
The study, by the Royal Veterinary College in London, discovered the link in an experiment using rats. But they believe
there is evidence the same is true in humans.
Study leader Dr Stephanie Bayol said mums-to-be should not dramatically increase intake of processed foods.
“Our study has shown that eating large quantities of junk food when pregnant and breast-feeding could impair the normal control of appetite and promote an exacerbated taste for junk food in offspring,” she said. “This could place them on the road to obesity and make teaching healthy eating habits to children even more challenging.”
The team studied 42 pregnant and lactating female rats as well as 216 offspring from weaning to 10 weeks of age.
Different groups were either fed normal “rodent chow” made from wheat, soya, barley and fish meal, or human junk foods such as doughnuts, biscuits, marshmallows, crisps, cheese and chocolate.
The team found that as the baby rats grew, they too had a tendency to over-eat and to opt for fatty and sugary foods.
Giving baby rats junk food when they stopped suckling had a lesser effect. These rats ate up to 26 per cent fewer calories a day than those exposed to junk food from the womb.
Although rats with early exposure to junk foods were born lighter than average, they quickly put on weight.
It is believed that junk foods interfere with hormones in the brain which regulate appetite and tell us when we are full.
Professor Neil Stickland, co-author of the study, said: “Our research shows healthy eating habits need to start during the foetal and suckling stage.
“Mothers should be aware that pregnancy and lactation are not the time to over-indulge in fatty-sugary treats in the misguided belief that they are ‘eating for two’.”
More than one in four Britons are obese and the figure is expected to rise.
The research was funded by the Wellcome Trust and published yesterday in the British Journal of Nutrition.
