While the importance for women to eat a healthy, balanced diet before conception and during and after pregnancy has been previously known, just how vital it is may have been overlooked.
Research on animals has indicated that the unwanted consequences of poor nutrition stretch across numerous generations, offering a connection between the poor diets of grandmothers during pregnancy and while breastfeeding and the origins of insulin-resistance and type 2 diabetes in their grandchildren.
Chilling facts: The number of type 2 diabetics is estimated to double to 300 million worldwide by 2025; the disease is responsible for early death and painful and debilitating complications such as limb amputation and blindness.
Revealing the Connection
Experiments on animals showed that grandchildren of rats not given proper nutrition during pregnancy were at an increased risk of obesity and insulin resistance.
But what about humans?
Though previous research has suggested a child may be at a higher risk of diabetes if their mother's diet was poor during pregnancy and breastfeeding, researchers believe this study may be the first to show the effect may be passed down to the next generation as well:
Granddaughters, rather than grandsons, are particularly susceptible to diabetes if their grandmother's diet was not up to par during pregnancy.
However, grandsons seemed to be more affected by the lack of nutrients received directly from their mothers during breastfeeding.
These results highlight the importance of women eating well during pregnancy and the first few months after giving birth.
Journal of Physiology April 28, 2005
BBC News May 8, 2005
It is fascinating to realize that your ancestors' diets can have a profound influence on your health. Dr. Pottinger did a study in the '30s that demonstrated this in cats. The other side of the coin is that the diet you are eating now is influencing your grandchildren. That is part of the reason the health of our country is going downhill. We are reaping the harvest of the poor eating habits of our parents and grandparents.
It is important to realize that this may appear to be a genetic trait, but it isn't. Genes take a lot longer than one or two generations to change. But even if it were your genes, they are little more than information storage facilities that do very little to influence your health. The reality is that the expression of your genes is the most important influence over your health and that of your children, and this expression is heavily influenced by the way you live your lives.
If this were not true, you'd be helpless to do anything about your health, which, of course, is rarely the case.
No matter what your family's health history has been, there's plenty you can do to prevent or eliminate the epidemic of childhood diabetes and obesity in your home right now. And, make no mistake about it, the younger you start your children down the right path, the easier it will be for them in the future.
Diabetes Prevention Tips for Your Child
Breastfeed your baby.
Determine your child's nutritional type with our free online test and prepare the right meals his or her body needs.
Encourage your child to exercise at least 30 minutes a day.
Switch from soda and sugary drinks to pure water.
Turn off the television.
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