“A mother's diet prior to conception affects the health of her children,” explains Dr. Fuhrman, “We must face reality. You can't escape the effects of poor food choices.” And now,
a new study claims that mother’s who eat high-fat diets while pregnant might trigger early-puberty in their daughters. Via the
Well blog:
The investigators, from the University of Auckland, fed pregnant rats a high-fat diet throughout pregnancy and lactation. Another group of rats received a regular diet of rat chow. After the baby rats were weaned, they also ate either regular chow or a high-fat diet.
The onset of puberty was much earlier in all the rats whose mothers ate a high-fat diet, regardless of whether the baby rats ate high-fat or regular diets. Baby rats that ate a high-fat diet also had early puberty even if their mothers ate a healthful diet. Rats exposed to a combination of a high-fat diet inside the mother’s womb and a high-fat diet after birth also had early puberty, but it wasn’t any earlier than other rats eating a fatty diet.
“This might suggest that the fetal environment in high-fat fed mothers plays a greater role in determining pubertal onset than childhood nutrition,” said Deborah Sloboda, lead author of the study.
I asked Dr. Fuhrman for his thoughts on mothers’ diets and early-puberty. Here’s what he had to say:
Everything is a combination of factors. Sure, the mother's diet plays a strong role, so does infant nutritional practices and genetics. As people looking to prevent disease, rather than futilely trying to treat it after it occurs, we should welcome any information that aids individuals looking to maximize the health and well-being of themselves and their offspring, there is just no substitute for eating healthfully at all stages of life.
Actually, this topic comes up a lot. Check out these previous posts:
Don’t kids already grow up too fast
