One of the perks of being pregnant is the unspoken rule that should you crave ice cream at 3am or chicken nuggets at 8am, you shall fulfill your
heart's, or rather your belly's, desire. After all, when else can a women legitimately indulge in sugary, fattening, and essentially unhealthy treats? It's just the body responding to changing nutritional needs during pregnancy, or so the argument goes. Unfortunately, sending hubby out for a midnight snack to quell a sudden urge for fried food isn't as harmless as you might think.
On the contrary, a study presented at the recent 95th Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society found that being exposed to a high-fat diet while in the womb, and after birth, can permanently alter brain cells that control food consumption and lead to a propensity for over-eating and an increased preference for fatty and sugary foods.
The research which was carried out on monkeys was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Kidney Diseases. Lead author, Juliana Gastao Franco and her team of researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University also found that the offspring of maternal monkeys fed a high-fat diet had increased body weight, and particularly increased body fat compared to offspring of female monkeys that were kept on a low-fed diet.
The trigger for these trends is thought to be a change in the fetal development of neurons that control food intake in the hypothalamus - the portion of the brain that controls a variety of functions including body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue and sleep, instigated by high amounts of dietary fat. Elinor Sullivan, another researcher on the study, believes the neurochemical change is most likely due to "inflammation in the brain...causing the reprogramming of these appetite-regulating neurons." This theory is supported by the fact that earlier research has shown that obesity stimulates inflammatory molecules which in turn change how neurons develop.
Over the course of the study, the group of scientists studied male monkeys born to females who had been fed either a low-fat, control diet consisting of 14 percent of calories from fat, or a high-fat diet in which 36 percent of the calories came from fat. After weaning, 20 male offspring of the monkeys on the high-fat diet either received the same high-fat diet or were switched to the low-fat diet. Seven young males of the control monkeys continued to receive the control diet. When the monkeys were the equivalent age to toddlers in humans, their total food intake, dietary preferences, body composition, physical activity and metabolic rate were measured.
Perhaps the most interesting find of the study was the fact that the young males with initial fetal exposure to the high-fat diet who were then switched to the low-fat, control diet showed, on average, greater overall food intake and increased binge eating of high-fat and high-sugar foods, compared with the young monkeys maintained on a high-fat diet and the offspring of the control group.
The lesson to be learnt here is clear. Waiting until your child takes his or her first bites is already too late to stave off obesity and unhealthy eating habits. In fact, chowing down on unhealthy foods during pregnancy then banning the cookies and cakes from the family table could have the most detrimental effect of all.
To really give your child the best start in life, fight those cravings from the get go.
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