The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

There just might be something to this study. With our kids, my wife ate plenty of fruits, vegetables, some meats (don’t get it twisted, meat is especially important during pregnancy. I have met my share of vegetarians who practice differently. The type of protein that is in meat is very different than the protein you get from things like beans or other vegetables. I may go into this difference at a later date), and she stayed far away from junk foods. As I mentioned a while back on this site, our kids will turn down juice, soda for water. Part of this has to do with their upbringing, but most of it has to do with their personal preference. How I wish I could turn back time for myself!!

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Poor nutrition in the womb may remodel the brain circuitry of newborn babies and predispose them to become obese in later life, research in mice suggests. The findings may help doctors to prevent the onset of obesity in susceptible infants who are born undernourished, say the researchers.

“Nutritional restriction during fetal life is not uncommon even in modern Western society,” says Norimasa Sagawa at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, one of the researchers. “The important point is that after such nutritional stress during fetal life those (children) are exposed to high-calorie and high-fat diet during their later life.” A combination that may be a recipe for obesity.

Previous research has found that babies born to malnourished mothers are more likely to develop heart disease and diabetes in later life. These small babies have a phase of “catch-up” growth, where within their first months they grow more quickly than their bigger born counterparts, eventually reaching equal size. During catch-up, they also show elevated levels of the appetite-regulating hormone leptin. This is secreted by fat cells and acts to diminish appetite when reserves are high (more…)