Genetics and Health

Scottish Mothers’ Diet Influences Children’s Future Weight

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on July 3rd, 2006

Epigenetics is in the news again. This time, scientists studied Scottish babies and determined that they are heavier in a statistically significant way than babies in other parts of the UK.

• The average weight at birth of Scots babies was 7.7lb, compared with 7.6lb in Northern Ireland and England, and 7.5lb in Wales.
• By nine months, the average weight of Scots children had risen to 20lb, compared with 19.8lb in Wales, 19.7lb in England and 19.6lb in Northern Ireland.

As you can see, the differences are tiny yet scientists believe that because the Scottish diet is “notoriously poor,” what a mother eats could affect the function of Scots babies’ genes and push them towards being “overweight or obese.”

And what’s the typical Scottish supper? The newspaper article didn’t mention what the average mother in the study ate (and I don’t have access to the original International Journal of Obesity paper to check), but traditionally, Scottish cuisine includes haggis, tatties `n neeps, or fish `n chips but the restaurant scene should have at least changed by now.

In any case, obesity is an undeniable concern in Scotland:

• More than a third of Scots 12-year-olds are overweight
• A fifth are obese
• One in 10 is severely obese
• One in five youngsters is already overweight by the age of three-and-a-half.
• Among European countries, only Italy and Spain have more fat children.

Professor Mark Hanson, director of the developmental origins of health and disease division at Southampton University:

Mothers who have a seriously unbalanced diet, which is high in calories and fat and low in fruit, are tricking the foetus to think that nutrition outside the womb is not good.

As a result, the foetus adapts to what it expects the world outside to be like based on the information it gets from its mother and becomes fat as a child.

On the one hand, I do think mothers should take care in what they eat while they’re pregnant. Pregnancy is not a free license to eat as much as and whatever you want. (I counted calories for the first time when I was pregnant and kept my weight gain down to 10 kg.)

On the other hand, I hate the idea of blaming mothers for everything including something that seems as full of other confounding factors as the link between mother’s diet, uterine environment, and subsequent childhood obesity. There are many ways to approach the obesity epidemic, some much more effective than accusing mothers of poor dietary habits during pregnancy, so pointing the finger at just moms is a cop out.

But maybe I’m just feeling the need to defend myself.

For more reading, see Mother’s Diet Influences Gene Function in Offspring and Mothers’ Vitamin Intake Affects Gene Function in Offspring.

The Sunday Times, July 2, 2006

Technorati Tags: obesity, diet, mothers, pregnancy, scottish, children, babies, haggis, genes, genetics, dna, disease, health

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POSTED IN: General Genetics and Health, Genetics of Disease