Pregnant women have a new problem to worry about as they battle with food cravings, according to a new study.
Researchers say there may be a link between a high fat diet in pregnancy and the child’s later development of Alzheimer’s disease.
The finding has come from a study of laboratory mice and was being reported to a conference of Alzheimer’s Research UK in Oxford this week.
The researchers found that mice born to mothers who ate a high-fat diet developed problems with the blood circulation to the brain.
Researcher Dr Cheryl Hawkes, of Southampton University, said: “Our preliminary findings suggest that mothers’ diets during pregnancy may have long-term effects on their children’s brains and vascular health. We still need to do more work to understand how our findings translate to humans, but we have known for some time that protecting mothers’ health during pregnancy can help lower the risk of health problems for their children.
"Our next step will be to investigate how our findings could relate to Alzheimer’s disease in people."
The charity’s director of research Dr Eric Karran said: “It’s important to remember that this research is in mice, but these results add to existing evidence suggesting that the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in later life is affected by our health earlier in life.
"This study goes one step further by suggesting that what happens in the womb may also be important."
The Royal College of Midwives gave a cautious welcome to the findings.
Louise Silverton, of the college, said: “We have to note that this is a study on mice so more research is needed to see if it is applicable in humans.
"However, there is a rapidly growing body of evidence about the benefits of healthy eating both for the pregnant woman and her baby. Advice for women is to eat a varied diet with plenty of fruit and veg, whole grains and moderate fat as well as sufficient protein.
"This research adds to that and reinforces the need to spread the message about the importance of diet."
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