Diet during pregnancy could be a cause of obesity, study
child's later risk of developing obesity, diabetes and heart
disease, according to University of Nottingham scientists working
on a five-year early nutrition programme.
The EU-funded research, known as EARNEST, is part of a €=16.5m European project involving 38 research institutions in 16 European countries.
The scientists believe that their findings will help shape public policy on women's diet during pregnancy and lactation, and that they "could have as big an impact on public health as other lifestyle interventions such as decreasing food intake and increasing exercise- which are much more difficult to impose."
"What your mother eats and how you are fed as a baby can programme you for a lifetime of good health or bad health," said Professor Michael Symonds, head of the Academic Division of Child Health at Nottingham University Medical School.
"This obviously has important health implications worldwide, given that we are living longer, more people are getting cardiovascular disease and we need to get to grips with the mechanisms behind this."
The scientists are currently working on animal "nutritional manipulation"during pregnancy to try to establish the optimum dietary patterns for humans. Their work is primarily conducted on sheep because of several similarities with humans when it comes to foetus development, they said.
According to Symonds, one of their key findings was that offspring of mothers who ate less during the final month of pregnancy- the period when the foetus grows most rapidly- were fatter than other control offspring.
The reason, he explained, is that if nutrition is scarce, metabolism is adapted to most efficiently utilize the available energy. After birth, when nutrition is no longer scarce, the already adapted, 'efficient' metabolism results in weight piling on.
The scientists are also looking at the effects of over-nutrition of mothers, however these tests are currently still underway and results are not as yet available.
Symonds told FoodNavigator.com that their findings will most likely lead to suggested changes in the diet of pregnant women, but he could not specify what kind of changes as their research is still ongoing.
Major differences in risk factors for health problems - such as cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, obesity, bone health, immune function, cognitive development and behaviour - have already been observed in children who experienced different diets in the first few months of life, or whose mothers were given different supplements during pregnancy.
According to the University of Munichs Dr Berthold Koletzko, the overall project co-coordinator, "differences in nutritional experience at critical periods in early life, both before and after birth, influences or 'programmes' development and health throughout life. Building on current evidence, our research will drive new thinking on nutritional standards and advice to maximise long-term health and well-being."
