We already know: women pregnant must have a balanced diet adapted to their needs. And obviously, they would not be the only ones: a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals that the hygiene of the father’s life before the design has an impact on the health of the baby.
Variable protein, carbohydrate and calorie intake
For the purposes of this work, led by Michal Polak and Joshua Benoit, two biologists from the University of Cincinnati (United States), male and female Drosophila melanogaster (also called “fruit flies” or “vinegar flies”) , known for their great reproductive abilities, were separated into two groups. For 17 days, the females were all fed with semolina of But. The males, on the other hand, were subjected to 30 different diets based on yeast and sugar, the concentration of proteins, carbohydrates and calories of which varied dramatically.
The males were then mated and the researchers found that the embryos from the males who had followed a diet high in carbohydrates and poor in protein were more were more likely to resist than others. The researchers also observed that males with lower energy stores were less likely to see their embryos survive. “A good number of studies suggest that male diet affects reproductive capacity, but so far the reduction in viability has been much smaller than what we have seen,” says Joshua Benoit. “Finding a link between the father’s diet and the health of the offspring was a real surprise”, concludes Michal Polak.
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