Babies are what their mothers eat
Categories: Eating & nutrition, In the news
If you spent your life shunning fruits and vegetables, you might want to seriously reassess that stance on healthy foods before becoming pregnant. According to British researchers, a mother's diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding directly affects the child's risk of obesity, elevated cholesterol, and blood sugar levels for the rest of their life.
In the study, researchers fed one group of rats a diet of donuts, muffins, cookies, chips and sweets while they were pregnant and nursing their young. Another group was fed a regular, healthy diet. When comparing the two groups, researchers found the babies from the junk food momma rats had higher levels of cholesterol, triglycerides,glucose, and insulin and were fatter through adolescence and adulthood that the rats born of mothers who ate healthily.
And while it's true that rats aren't human (although some humans can be rats!) according to Neil Stickland, the study's co-author, "Humans share a number of fundamental biological systems with rats, so there is good reason to assume the effects we see in rats may be repeated in humans. Our research certainly tallies with epidemiological studies linking children's weight to that of their parents."
Does this mean pregnant woman stress over a couple chocolate chip cookies and an occasional hamburger? Of course not! But knowing the constant craving for deep fried Snickers bars isn't exactly doing the wee one any favors might be the push needed to choose a juicy orange or calcium-building serving of yogurt instead.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
queenoqueens 7-03-2008 @ 6:00PM
What about the scientific study that found that children of moms who ate chocolate regularly during their pregnancies were generally happier kids? THERE'S an argument for not eating too healthy!
For every study, there is an equal and opposite study. I choose to listen to the ones that say chocolate makes happier babies.
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caron 7-04-2008 @ 12:07AM
I just wrote a paper about this topic for nursing school. I completely agree with the fact that women need to be careful of what types of foods they are eating their ENTIRE lives. It will affect their entire family, because the little ones will be patterning the way they eat after their role models...being the MOM and the dad. Chocolate may make you happier for a short period of time, but that is most likely one serving of DARK chocolate, which is probably about 1 or 2 ounces......
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susan allport 7-04-2008 @ 10:15AM
Thought you'd be interested in this short omega-3 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIgNpsbvcVM
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