Why your mother is responsible for being overweight: scientific proof

Mothers have a huge influence on the personality of their children. For example, it is believed that it is in the power of a mother to instill certain eating habits in a child: teaching him to appreciate healthy foods or becoming addicted to fast foods and lighter and ultra-processed foods. more affordable. Also, a woman’s activity level affects the baby’s daily routine. He may spend all day with his phone in his hands, or he may enjoy walking or playing active games at home.

So, if at the time of pregnancy a woman is overweight, and her diet is far from the concept of health, then most likely the unborn child will develop problems. Experts are still looking for the exact reasons for this relationship. Most often they talk about genes – and also that children can inherit from their parents certain disorders of the gastrointestinal tract that affect metabolism: for example, incorrect functioning of the intestinal microflora or special protein labels on the surface of DNA.

Recently, a research team from the University of Southampton Research Center in the UK made a new discovery. It turns out that the biological impact of being overweight during pregnancy only affects girls!

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Scientists arrived at this opinion by observing 240 children of different ages. First, they found that boys under 10 had a harder time gaining weight, simply because they were more active than girls and burned significantly more calories. And secondly, experts suspect that the obesity of the future mother critically affects the female fetus in the womb. At the same time, the weight problem in daughters of overweight mothers begins to manifest itself more noticeably around 7-9 years – and can persist for life.

“We need to do more research to find out what the female fetus reacts to in this way: what exactly do overweight pregnant women eat, what lifestyle do they lead. This will provide an opportunity to identify girls who are at higher risk of developing obesity so that this problem can be addressed in early childhood. explain one of the study’s authors, physician-endocrinologist Rebecca Moon.

The authors of the work also hope that her results will draw public attention to the problem of excess weight: and, in particular, before trying to get pregnant, women with a high body mass index will take care to lose weight to regain a healthy figure and improve diet.