Fat Rich Food during Pregnancy can Lead to Obesity in Children
A recent research report has concluded that intake of a fat rich food during pregnancy and lactation can potentially put a child at a higher risk of obesity in later life. Published in the Journal of Physiology, the report highlights that the reflex mechanism which otherwise keeps a check on the amount of food we eat, malfunctions in children due to fat-rich diet consumed during pregnancy. This reflex mechanism becomes less sensitive, ultimately resulting in obesity in later life.
As a part of the research, the researchers fed one group of rats high-fat diet during pregnancy and lactation. Their offspring were fed the same diet after they weaned off. As the rats reached adolescence, their neural activity involved in energy balance and appetite regulation was measured by the researchers. “We looked at the circuits that relay information from the stomach and the small intestine to the brain and back to the stomach telling it how to work,” said Kirsteen Browning, lead investigator and Associate Professor of neural and behavioural sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine. “We found that parts of these reflexes were actually compromised even before we saw obesity,” Browning added.
She mentioned that it is not a norm that all mothers who consumed fat-rich diet had obese children. Also, obese people may not necessarily have mothers who had a fat-rich diet while they were pregnant. “It is just one more risk factor. An understanding of the biological mechanisms underpinning obesity could help stem the tide of obesity,” she added.
She however stated that, “It is time that we start to take seriously the idea that obesity is, in part, a brain disease.”
A recent research report has concluded that intake of a fat rich food during pregnancy and lactation can potentially put a child at a higher risk of obesity in later life. Published in the Journal of Physiology, the report highlights that the reflex mechanism which otherwise keeps a check on the amount of food we eat, malfunctions in children due to fat-rich diet consumed during pregnancy. This reflex mechanism becomes less sensitive, ultimately resulting in obesity in later life.
As a part of the research, the researchers fed one group of rats high-fat diet during pregnancy and lactation. Their offspring were fed the same diet after they weaned off. As the rats reached adolescence, their neural activity involved in energy balance and appetite regulation was measured by the researchers. “We looked at the circuits that relay information from the stomach and the small intestine to the brain and back to the stomach telling it how to work,” said Kirsteen Browning, lead investigator and Associate Professor of neural and behavioural sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine. “We found that parts of these reflexes were actually compromised even before we saw obesity,” Browning added.
She mentioned that it is not a norm that all mothers who consumed fat-rich diet had obese children. Also, obese people may not necessarily have mothers who had a fat-rich diet while they were pregnant. “It is just one more risk factor. An understanding of the biological mechanisms underpinning obesity could help stem the tide of obesity,” she added.
She however stated that, “It is time that we start to take seriously the idea that obesity is, in part, a brain disease.”
