A new study at the University of Southhampton has confirmed that Mom’s diet during pregnancy has lifelong effects on her baby. Whether Mom is skinny or fat during pregnancy seems to have little effect on whether her baby is prone to obesity later on. Rather, it is what she eats during those critical months and the nutrition of the food she selects that makes all the difference.
Epigenetic changes or alteration of the fetus’ DNA function (without changes to the actual DNA) can occur with a nutrition poor pregnancy diet leading the child to store more fat in later life. Surprisingly, these changes were found to be independent of the child’s birthweight.
The functional DNA change doesn’t end there. These epigenetic changes also strongly influence how the child responds to diet and lifestyle changes years later.
The study examined babies at birth for these epigenetic changes and found these changes strongly predictive of the child’s obesity status 6 or even 9 years later.
The most sobering statement made by the researchers:Â “This study provides the most compelling evidence yet that just focusing on interventions in adult life will not reverse the epidemic of chronic diseases, not only in developed societies but in low socio-economic populations too.”
It seems that Traditional Societies indeed had it right! To ensure a healthy population, primary effort must be expended on the pre-pregnancy and pregnancy diet of the parents-to-be! Trying to fix problems after the baby is born has limited effect.
It is absolutely essential that information regarding the protective effects of Traditional Pregnancy Diets become more widely available and accessible for any headway in the reversal of the obesity epidemic to be made. Putting kids on skim milk and adding an extra day or two of PE at school sure isn’t having much effect.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Source: New Link Between Mother’s Pregnancy Diet and Offspring’s Chances of Obesity Found
Hi Sarah,
Are these functional changes of the DNA permanent? I wonder if there are other alterations besides the susceptibility to obesity. What do you think? This is very shocking, and makes me wonder whether it’s inevitable for susceptible people to become obese or develop some sort of autoimmune disease despite them consuming a healthy diet. The scary thing is that in the modern world, many people within these past 100 yrs were never fed the “ideal” diet while in their mother’s womb.
Hi Erica, I’m sure that the functional changes are not permanent .. they may last a couple of generations though. I read somewhere and I wish I could remember where that Grandma’s food choices continue to affect her grandchildren. This is what Dr. Price said in his book that it takes 2 generations to undo the physical degeneration once a healthy and traditional diet is once again being consumed. There is always hope though and this study certainly just scratches the surface of all this.
Absolutely right on! This is just one of the reasons pre-conception and pregnancy nutrition is so important. Epigenetics is so fascinating! Thanks for sharing 🙂
You know women used to understand that what they did, what they ate, what they drank, and what thy breathed had profound affects on their children. Now we separate the mother from her child and believe that even during pregnancy she lives and acts independently and owes her child nothing. It is so good to remind women of this false perception. Their children deserve better and their mothers, too!
It’s amusing to me…I was a bit overweight with my first pregnancy (on SAD) and I hated the way I looked while pregnant…just kind of fat and blah. Then after my second baby (we discovered traditional food in the last few months of that pregnancy) I lost a bunch of weight, then gained it back on traditional foods. Now I have the “perfect” pregnancy body, all belly!
My older kids don’t struggle with obesity because although I was eating SAD, I still had a lot of salads, fresh fruit, homemade soups, etc. — really not that terrible. I never had much sweet tooth either. They’ve nearly always had a traditional diet, too, so they have tons of energy and are very strong and perfectly proportioned.
It is important to note, too, that even if mom’s pregnancy diet makes it HARDER for a person to maintain an appropriate weight, it CAN be done in most cases. Or at least, they can be much healthier! This is not a reason to give up.
Kate, great point. I’m glad you brought that up. How your mom ate during pregnancy is less likely to predict your actual weight, and more likely to predict susceptibility to weight issues and likelihood that you will gain weight easily, etc. Similar but not quite the same. Your actual weight will be influenced by a variety of factors, many of which will occur after you are born.
I think that its important to realize that as long as you are doing your best then thats all you can do. I am a huge supporter of all I have read about Traditional Diets but sometimes things are out of control (any of you throw up the whole first trimester???!) I choose to look at the here and now and the future of my kids and realize that this life is not everything and that (as long as I do my best) I don’t need to worry and God will provide both my health and my childrens health.
I always find the field of epigenetics fascinating because it proves that we really do have control over our health! We are much more than machines victims of our “inherited genetics”.
Ever heard of nutrigenomics? http://www.hawkeshealth.net/community/showthread.php?t=959
My only question is, what do these scientists consider a healthy diet. I was told by my OBGYN and nutritionist to eat lean meat, skim milk, lots of fruit and vegetables, and plenty of “whole grains.” I hadn’t even heard of WAPF or NT back then but the funny part was, I TRIED to eat the way my doc recommended but I kept cheating. I ate eggs every single day and I think there were at least 3 separate times when I ordered my husband to go to the Russian food store to fetch me a pound of salmon roe which I think I ate in 3 days, I craved roasted beef marrow which I ate about twice a week (but never told my doctor about it for fear of being chastised,) ate sushi, used butter on my sweet potatoes with abandon, rich european cheeses, and ate chopped liver pate a few times a week too. Lots of veggies and fruit too, btw and I avoided grains like the plague because I was paranoid about gestational diabetes, since I was already overweight.
The funny part is, that even though I started my pregnancy overweight I only gained 15 pounds and had a 9 pound baby boy with a perfect apgar score and almost 6 months later he’s never been sick or collicky. I wish I’d known about WAPF before I became pregnant. I didn’t even find out about traditional foods until a few weeks before I had him. I would have avoided a lot of other toxins and started eating grassfed a lot earlier. I’m glad I listened to my body instead of that nutritionist, though. So many of my friends had problems with breastfeeding and such, which was not an issue for me. My baby left the hospital a few ounces heavier than he was born, which is not common in this day and age. Hopefully in 3-4 years when we try for another again, I’ll be a lot more well nourished and will have an equally healthy and happy baby. fingers crossed.
This is so fascinating. In my ignorance, I would have said my mother ate a good diet because she craved watermelon and ate it by the bushel. Since it was a natural, healthy food and not commercial junk, I fell into that trap of thinking it a good diet. I have had a weight problem all my life and the high carb/fructose being a villain in obesity now makes even more sense. Yes, there is good nutrition in watermelon but like everything else, the key is moderation so that there is a good balance in the diet and the fruit sugars are not the mainstay of the diet. Am I correct in making this assumption?
FYI There is an excellent book in the works called the Better Baby Book that deals with all the issues of diet, nutrition, life style etc……. so that one may have the healthiest, happiest, smartest baby possible. I know that it is near the end of the editing and will soon be sent to the printer.
Dorsey, yes too much fruit can be a bad thing even though in moderation it is a wonderful food.
This reminds me of the things I read in The Crazymakers about how inadequate nutrition and the SAD during the pre-natal period cause children’s brains to never fully or correctly develop! Once you’ve missed the window for the proper development, nothing really fixes the problems that have developed. All you can do is try to patch and compensation later on. It’s so sad that this information isn’t commonly available (or better yet drilled into) expecting mothers; just imagine what a difference we’d see in society in twenty years if it was!
While on the surface this can sound discouraging for adults and those who already have children, there’s a hopeful message here too: we really CAN change the next generation.
Exactly Elizabeth .. I took it to mean that folks who are struggling with weight should stop beating themselves up and do the best they can with good diet and healthy amounts of movement and realize not everything is under their control … AND most importantly, fix the problem for their children and grandchildren.