The relation between mother’s diet during pregnancy and the risk of weight gain in child is one of the least explored topics in obesity research. Brazilian nutritionists in April 2008 found that if the foods to eat during pregnancy were high in fat content, the result was birth of an obese baby.
How Foods to Eat During Pregnancy Can Cause Baby’s Obesity?
- Human body is built of cells which are its basic building blocks. The functions of cells are monitored by chemical instructions called genes.
- Proteins are the chemicals which carry out the functions as instructed by the genes.
- Adipokines are such proteins involved with the functioning of fat cells through the process of signalling between them.
- The study was carried out on experimental mice and when pregnant mothers were fed diet rich in fat content, it leads to alteration in the way adipokines worked in them.
- The relation between adipokines functioning and insulin production was also explored as part of the study.
- The result was 40 percent rise in the body fat content of the young rats born to pregnant mothers who had high fatty diet during pregnancy.
- The body of these young rats also required high levels of insulin in the body increasing the production of this hormone, a serious risk factor for type 2 diabetes followed by risk of heart ailments.
Significance of the Research Done on Foods to Eat During Pregnancy:
Diagnosis of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes has increased drastically in the recent times. Efforts to address these conditions should not begin after it is too late. Unfortuantely, both these conditions have no cure and can be only be treated with difficulty on diagnosis.
If the origin of these disorders is traced backed in the womb of the mother, precautionary measures can be initiated at a very early stage. In this way, both these epidemic conditions of the society can be addressed jointly and effectively.
