Syracuse is a traditional family oriented community where a great deal of resources are invested in helping women who wish to have children enjoy healthy pregnancies aimed at delivering healthy babies. There are many resources listed online for pregnant women in the Syracuse, New York area; Pregnancy Resources Near Syracuse, New York. There is therefore a lot of interest here in Syracuse about new research which helps to highlight the effects of a mothers diet during pregnancy on a babies weight.
Science Codex has reported "Low-fat diet for moms during pregnancy appears best." New research which has been done on mice indicates that babies born to mothers who eat a high-fat diet before and during pregnancy have a higher fat mass and smaller livers than babies whose mothers consume a low-fat diet. This study also reported that mothers who switch to a low-fat diet during pregnancy considerably reduce the risk of these negative effects on their babies. This study has been published online in the American Journal of Physiology and Endocrinology Metabolism.
In view of the fact that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nearly half of women of childbearing age are overweight or obese in the United States, there is a need to inform women and their health care providers of the inherent dangers which maternal overeating creates for their child's future health and risk of chronic disease.
In this study a mouse model was used to examine how consumption of a high-fat diet during pregnancy effects body composition in the newborn. The female mice who ate a high-fat diet gained more body weight and had a higher fat mass than the females who ate a low-fat diet. And babies born to female mice who had consumed high-fat food had more body fat, less lean mass, and smaller livers than the newborns of females who consumed low-fat food.
The researchers also found that switching to a low-fat diet during pregnancy prevented the infants from accumulating excess fat mass in utero and also prevented them from having smaller livers. Principal investigator Stephanie M. Krasnow, Ph.D., said "These findings demonstrate that changing to a low-fat diet during pregnancy minimizes the harmful effects of maternal obesity on the newborn's body composition, potentially reducing the child's risk of developing obesity and related diseases later in life."
Photographer: Clare Bloomfield
