A woman’s poor diet during pregnancy may cause changes to the DNA that will mean her child piling on fat later in life, researchers have revealed.
A woman does not have to be overweight to put her child at risk – all she has to do is to eat the wrong foods, scientists say.
Researchers at Southampton University worked with others in New Zealand and Singapore on the project.
They say diet during pregnancy can trigger "epigenetic" changes – which alter the way genes function.
The decade long study found that changes to DNA at birth were linked to the development of obesity by the age of nine.
The research is due to be published next week in the journal Diabetes.
Researcher Professor Keith Godfrey said: "We have shown for the first time that susceptibility to obesity cannot simply be attributed to the combination of our genes and our lifestyle, but can be triggered by influences on a baby’s development in the womb, including what the mother ate.
"A mother’s nutrition while pregnant can cause important epigenetic changes that contribute to her offspring’s risk of obesity during childhood."
He added: "This study indicates that measures to prevent childhood obesity should be targeted on improving a mother’s nutrition and her baby’s development in the womb. These powerful new epigenetic measurements might prove useful in monitoring the health of the child."
Fellow researcher Sir Peter Gluckman, of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, said the research was the "most compelling evidence yet" that human susceptibility to chronic diseases needed to be tackled before birth.
Diabetes April 26 2011
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