A new study to be published in the journal Diabetes has found that a mother’s diet can alter the DNA of her unborn children and increase the risk of obesity. Specifically, the study found that eating large amounts of carbohydrates lead to changes in the DNA of children, making them fatter. The genetic changes observed occurred in a gene that is involved in the processing of fat by cells.
The study of how environmental factors influence expression of genes is known as epigenetics, and it is a rapidly growing field. The study took samples from the umbilical cord searching for “epigenetic markers”. The researchers found that children born to mothers that ate a lot of carbohdyrates while pregnant had these markers.
The researchers also demonstrated a strong correlation between a child having those epigenetic markers and suffering from obesity at ages 6 and 9. The researchers found that this accounts for one quarter of the difference in fatness between children at ages 6 and 9. This makes it a stronger predictor for obesity than birth weight, and it was not dependent on the mother’s weight.
The study underlines the importance of eating a well balanced, nutritious diet while pregnant, and avoiding excess carbohydrate consumption.
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