Mothers have a huge influence on the lives of their children, starting from the moment that a child is conceived. There is a lot of advice to be found regarding exactly what a woman should eat, or should not eat, while she is pregnant. It turns out that an unhealthy diet can cause a genetic change in the woman’s baby that predisposes that child to have an increased risk of obesity.
Obesity has been described as an epidemic in America. We have all heard about the increased health risks that an obese person faces. This translates into more visits to doctors. People who are obese are more likely to require prescription drugs to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Many insurance companies, and many large corporations who offer employer sponsored health insurance, have gone as far as to offer incentives to encourage people to lose some weight. You have probably heard all of this before, perhaps many times over.
There has been a lot of debate about what causes a person to become obese. An international study that was led by researchers from the University of Southampton finds an unexpected cause of obesity. It turns out that the type of foods that a pregnant woman chooses to eat can actually alter the function of her baby’s DNA. This is called an epigenetic change. In this case, the changes in the baby’s DNA cause the baby to have an increased risk of becoming obese, and also to hold onto more body fat than the baby might have before the epigenetic change took place.
In other words, mothers who choose to eat badly while they are pregnant are, in fact, producing babies that are prone to becoming obese. The pregnant women did not have to actually be obese themselves in order to have their diet cause an epigenetic change in their baby’s DNA. Skinny mothers who eat badly can cause as much harm as overweight or obese mothers who eat badly.
We all know that most of the items on the menus of fast food restaurants are not healthy food choices. This study emphasizes how important it truly is that pregnant women pay attention to what they are eating and make good choices about their diet.
Another thing to consider is that people do not always choose to eat certain foods just because they feel hungry at that moment. Food has a lot of cultural and emotional connotations attached to it. Think for a minute about your very favorite food. It is likely that part of why you like this food is because you remember eating it at family gatherings, or other special occasions with your family. It might be a family recipe that has been handed down through generations.
A lot of people continue the eating habits that they were taught as children. If your family was one that ate at a lot of fast food places when you were growing up, you probably are doing the same thing as an adult. This, of course, also plays a part in why so many people are obese. It’s a complex relationship between your food preferences, the availability of fast food, and the diet your mother ate when she was pregnant with you.
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