Children born to mothers who eat a lot of processed foods packed with sugar and salt face an increased risk of obesity late in childhood, researchers said on Monday.
“Children conceived with low-quality diet from mothers ,high in inflammation of associated foods — during pregnancy may be more likely to have obesity or excess body fat,” Ling-Wei Chen from University College Dublin’s School of Public Health, made in a statement.
“Proving evidences, pinpointed to the first 1,000 days of life from conception to two years old as the possible period for preventing childhood obesity.”
Obesity in childhood often carries on into adulthood and is associated with a higher risk of type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health problems.
To examine how maternal diet might affect childhood obesity, Chen and colleagues analysed data collected from 16,295 mother-child pairs in Ireland, France, Britain, the Netherlands, and Poland.
