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UK Wedding News

27/01/2014

Fatty Diets Can Alter A Baby's Brain

A new study has suggested that a high-fat diet during pregnancy could alter a baby's developing brain and increase its chances of becoming obese later in life.

The research, which was carried out by a team at Yale School of Medicine, demonstrated how diet can change the structure of mice brains. They claim that this could explain why child of obese parents are also more likely to become overweight.

The findings were published in the journal Cell, and while it showed a difference in the brains of animals, experts said any potential changes in human brains were unproven. There is, however, evidence to suggest that diet during pregnancy can influence a child's future weight gain, through changes to DNA.

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For the study, the team carried out experiments on mice which showed that mothers on a high-fat diet had pups with an altered hypothalamus. This is the part of the brain important for regulating metabolism and it was found that those pups were more likely to be overweight and develop Type 2 diabetes than the pups of mothers that were given a normal diet.

Speaking to the BBC, researcher, Professor Tamas Horvath, from Yale, explained: "It could be a signal to the pup that it can grow bigger as the environment is plentiful in food.

"We definitely believe these are fundamental biological processes also affecting humans and influencing how children may eventually become obese.

"It seems, at least, that this could have a major impact and we need to explore it further in both animal and human studies."

He added that a healthy diet during pregnancy could help to break the cycle of obese parents having obese children.

Dr Graham Burdge, from the University of Southampton, also told the BBC that while the "concept fits in well with the data", there are important differences in how mice and humans process fat, so the same might not happen for pregnant women.

"Much of what we know about the process comes from animals. The next big thing is to establish the same mechanisms operate in humans and if we can modify that," he added.

(JP/CD)

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"A new study has suggested that a high-fat diet during pregnancy could alter a baby's developing brain and increase its chances of becoming obese later in life."