Amarachi Okeh
A new study has indicated that the consumption of junk food while pregnant can increase the chances of obesity in children.
According to the study, eating cakes, biscuits, ice creams, and other ultra-processed food while pregnant could cause obesity in the unborn child.
The authors said that they had set out to unravel the impact of such processed food on maternal health, noting that this had been previously unknown.
The researchers noted that ultra-processed foods contain various types of additives, including stabilizers, artificial flavours, and artificial colours, and contain little, if any, whole food ingredients.
Also, ultra-processed foods generally have higher sugar, sodium, and saturated fat content compared with less processed foods and consistent evidence has linked ultra-processed food intake to excess body fat, overweight, and obesity in adults and children.
Because the development of obesity can be attributed to the combined influence of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors, maternal diet might influence the offspring’s predisposition to obesity and diet choice, the researchers thought.
To perform the study, the researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, used data from an active US study that tracks the lifestyles of almost 19,958 children born to about 14,553 mothers.
After completing an initial health and lifestyle questionnaire, the participants were monitored yearly between 1997 and 2001 and then every two years after that, according to the study which was published recently in the British Medical Journal.
In the end, it was discovered that 2,471 children (12 per cent)developed obesity or were overweight during an average follow-up period of 4 years.
They wrote that “after adjusting for established maternal risk factors and offspring’s ultra-processed food intake, physical activity, and sedentary time, maternal consumption of ultra-processed foods during the child-rearing period was associated with overweight or obesity in offspring, with a 26% higher risk in the group with the highest maternal ultra-processed food consumption versus the lowest consumption group”.
This, they said, meant that the risk was highest by 26 per cent more in those whose mothers ate the most ultra-processed foods compared to the lowest consumption group.
The researchers then noted that “Maternal consumption of ultra-processed food during the child-rearing period was associated with an increased risk of overweight or obesity in offspring, independent of maternal and offspring lifestyle risk factors.”
Copyright PUNCH
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]
Add Comment