High-Fat Diet Pregnancy Could Lead to Diabetes in Children: A study created by the University of Illinois suggests that a high-fat diet throughout one’s pregnancy could lead to diabetes in the child even if the mother herself is not a diabetic or even obese.
A University of Illinois professor of nutrition, Yuan-Xiang said, “We found that exposure to a high-fat diet before birth modifies gene expression in the livers of offspring so they are more likely to overproduce glucose, which can cause early insulin resistance and diabetes. He also noted, “The high-fat diet that caused these changes was a typical Western diet that contained 45 percent fat, which is not at all unusual. In recent years, the American diet has shifted to include many high-energy, high-fat, cafeteria-type, and fast foods.”
Based off of the study, researchers hope that doctors will be able to screen newborns through a diagnostic tool in which cam help keep children’s blood sugar in the normal range, which in the end will give them a better chance at lessening the risk of diabetes.
During the study, doctoral student Rita Strakovsky was able to feed obesity-resistant rats with a high-fat or a controlled diet from the first day of their gestation period. The rats were not obese at all, which means they were able to see that the diet alone was very helpful in slowing the risk of diabetes.
Strakovsky said, “At birth, offspring in the high-fat group had blood sugar levels that were twice as high as those in the control group, even though their mothers had normal levels. The high-fat offspring also had epigenetic modifications to genes that regulate glucose metabolism. One of these modifications, the acetylation of histones, acts by loosening the DNA, making it easier for the gene to be transcribed.”
Through the study it was quickly understood that diabetes cannot be stopped but the chances can be lessened with a low-fat diet.
Pan said, “We’d like to see if diet after birth could alleviate this problem that was programmed before birth,” During the study epigenetics was used as the diagnostic tool but Strakovsky states “The importance of making dietary recommendations for pregnant women more available so they are able to prevent this health problem.
She also stated, “Obstetrics patients rarely see a dietitian unless they’re having medical problems like gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia. Doctors now tend to focus on how much weight a woman should gain in a healthy pregnancy. Although healthy weight gain is extremely important, nutritional guidance could be invaluable for all pregnant women and their babies.”
A pregnant woman’s diet should consist of foods that are low in saturated fats such as fish, walnuts, whole grain bread, poultry, sunflower seeds and eggs. Fast foods, pastries and fattier cuts of meat are all bad, high-fat foods that are leading to more diabetic patients.
