women’s diet during their pregnancy plays a role in the good health of their children, but also of their grandchildren according to scientific research presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.
The research team followed 3,000 Filipino women since 1983 over three generations to analyze the effects of maternal nutrition on children and grandchildren.
“When women favored nutritious foods during their pregnancy, it benefited their children, but also their grandchildren, who showed better health in the long term,” explains Dr. Christopher Kuzawa of Northwestern University who led this study. .
Prenatal malnutrition impairs the health of children
“In general, nutrition measurements obtained when the mother is an infant or even a fetus are more reliable indicators of her baby’s weight than when looking at her diet as an adult,” Prof Kuzawa found. “A lot of converging evidence suggests that the amount of calories consumed during pregnancy has no noticeable effects on the baby. It is above all the quality of the diet before becoming pregnant and the nutrition during the first days of development that has a positive effect on the health of children”.
Malnutrition or obesity of the mother and grandmother are risk factors for the health of children and their development throughout their adult life.
“Abundant evidence shows that prenatal malnutrition can permanently alter biology in ways that persist into adulthood and increase the risk of disease,” says the professor. “Higher birth weight is associated with a lower risk of disease in adulthood, but only up to a point. When the birth weight is really very high, the risk of disease in adulthood increases,” he concludes.
“The results of this study may help improve supplementation strategies during the pregnancy and therefore promote the good health of children,” concludes Dr. Christopher Kuzawa.
