Maternal consumption of highly processed foods may be associated with an increased risk of obesity in offspring
A mother's consumption of highly processed foods appears to be associated with an increased risk of overweight or obesity in her offspring, independent of other lifestyle risk factors, according to a US study published today by the BMJ. The researchers say further studies are needed to confirm these results and understand the factors that may be responsible. However, they suggest that mothers could benefit from limiting consumption of highly processed foods, and that dietary guidelines should be refined and financial and social barriers removed to improve the diets of childbearing-age women and reduce childhood obesity...

Maternal consumption of highly processed foods may be associated with an increased risk of obesity in offspring
A mother's consumption of highly processed foods appears to be associated with an increased risk of overweight or obesity in her offspring, independent of other lifestyle risk factors, according to a US study published today by the BMJ.
The researchers say further studies are needed to confirm these results and understand the factors that may be responsible.
However, they suggest that mothers could benefit from limiting consumption of highly processed foods, and that dietary guidelines should be refined and financial and social barriers removed to improve the diets of childbearing-age women and reduce childhood obesity.
According to the World Health Organization, 39 million children were overweight or obese in 2020, leading to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and early death.
Highly processed foods such as packaged baked goods and snacks, carbonated beverages, and sugary cereals are common in the modern Western diet and have been linked to weight gain in adults. However, it is unclear whether there is a connection between mother's consumption of highly processed foods and the body weight of her offspring.
To investigate this further, researchers relied on data from 19,958 children of 14,553 mothers (45% boys, aged 7 to 17 years at study enrollment) from the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II) and the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS). I and II) in the United States.
NHS II is an ongoing study examining the health and lifestyles of 116,429 U.S. nurses ages 25 to 42 in 1989. Beginning in 1991, participants reported what they ate and drank every four years using validated food frequency questionnaires.
The GUTS I study began in 1996 when 16,882 children (aged 8 to 15 years) of NHS II participants completed an initial health and lifestyle questionnaire and were monitored every year between 1997 and 2001 and every two years thereafter.
In 2004, 10,918 children (aged 7 to 17 years) of NHS II participants took part in the expanded GUTS II study and were followed up every two years in 2006, 2008 and 2011 and thereafter.
A number of other potentially influential factors known to be strongly associated with childhood obesity were also considered. These included maternal weight (BMI), physical activity, smoking, living status (with or without partner) and partner's education, as well as children's consumption of highly processed foods, physical activity and sedentary time.
A total of 2471 (12%) children developed overweight or obesity during an average follow-up of 4 years.
The results show that a mother's consumption of highly processed foods was associated with an increased risk of overweight or obesity in her offspring. For example, the group with the highest maternal consumption of ultra-processed foods (12.1 servings/day) was found to have a 26% higher risk than the group with the lowest consumption (3.4 servings/day).
In a separate analysis of 2,790 mothers and 2,925 children with dietary information from three months before conception to delivery (interpregnancy), researchers found that ultra-processed food intake during pregnancy was not significantly associated with an increased risk of overweight or obesity in offspring.
Because this is an observational study, the cause cannot be determined. The researchers acknowledge that some of the observed risk may be due to other, unmeasured factors and that self-reported diet and weight values may be misreported.
Other important limitations include the fact that some offspring participants were lost to follow-up, resulting in some of the analyzes being underpowered, particularly in the context of enrollment during pregnancy, and that the mothers were predominantly white and of similar social and economic backgrounds. The results may not apply to other groups.
Still, the study used data from several large ongoing studies with detailed dietary assessments over a relatively long period of time, and further analysis found consistent associations, suggesting the results are robust.
The researchers do not suspect a clear mechanism underlying these relationships and say the area requires further study.
Nevertheless, these data demonstrate "the importance of refining nutritional recommendations and developing programs to improve the nutrition of women of childbearing age to promote the health of offspring," they conclude.
Source:
Reference:
Wang, Y., et al. (2022) Maternal consumption of highly processed foods and resulting risk of overweight or obesity in offspring: results from three prospective cohort studies. BMJ. doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071767.
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