Obesity linked to birth defects
Eating for two when pregnant may make an unborn child obese, researchers warn.
And it could trigger a permanent change in the child's genetic make-up, spawning multiple generations of overweight people.
"A baby exposed to poor [nutrition] passes that on when she becomes pregnant and has her own children. It's a whole intergenerational thing," Paul Zimmet, the director of international research at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, said. "The obesity epidemic is almost a self-perpetuating phenomenon … what your grandmother ate affects you."
There is growing evidence a pregnant woman's diet and lifestyle can switch obesity genes in her foetus on or off. Overfeeding a newborn can have the same effect.
The international obesity expert Professor Peter Gluckman is conducting a clinical trial to determine how maternal nutrition and lifestyle affects a child's risk of developing obesity and other chronic diseases.
The $30 million study of 1000 mothers in Singapore, funded by the Singaporean government, tracks the women and their children from the moment they conceive. More than 20 per cent of pregnant women in Singapore develop gestational diabetes. "What happens in early life affects your risks later in life," said Professor Gluckman, author of the forthcoming book Fat, Fate and Disease: Why Exercise and Diet Are Not Enough. "We can't do anything about genetics. The lifestyle approach hasn't worked well with adults. We've been preaching diet and exercise for the last 20 years and we're still fat. But we can change the obese genetic environment by focusing on early life."
An expectant mother's diet and lifestyle has been proven to affect her child's satiety, food preference, muscle mass and insulin resistance. It is not yet known which foods trigger obesity in utero, although overseas studies have suggested high intake of carbohydrates or fructose via soft drinks may have an effect.
Professor Zimmet said one of the key recommendations of the federal government's Preventative Health Taskforce (of which he was a member) was the importance of improving maternal and child health by educating mothers about diet and other risk factors for their baby.
"We have to get to mothers that are pregnant with better education, better management of infants, to change what will happen in 30 to 40 years time," Professor Zimmet said.
A recent study by the University of NSW using rats showed that larger mothers had bigger babies with hearty appetites who gained weight easily. "Mums that have a weight problem are at a much higher risk of their babies coming out large and having weight issues at an older age," said Dr Shirley Alexander, who runs the weight Management Program at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, which is supporting The Sun-Herald's Healthy Habits campaign, aimed at highlighting the childhood obesity epidemic.
Dr Alexander said it wasn't enough to lose weight just before becoming pregnant. "That is almost not enough to save the risks to the neonate. Healthy maternal weight with no ups and downs is better for you."
