For good reason expectant
mothers have long been warned to be careful about what they eat.
Pregnant women with diets
high in junk food are known to increase the risk of their children being obes
e.
While scientists also believe
that providing a developing child with enough nutrients can affect their
intelligence.
But new research suggests all the harmful effects and damage from a lacklustre
diet can be reversed and it's all down to feeding
children a healthy diet, scientists claim.
Researchers from the University
of Cincinnati used four
groups of female mice to test their theory.
The first group was fed a
controlled diet during both pregnancy and lactation while the second consumed
foods high in fat.
Rodents in the third and
fourth groups were given a nutrient-enriched diet, but the latter consisted of
offspring from those on a high-fat diet
READ:
When they all became adults they were then given the same control diet, to
assess the effects of healthy eating in infancy. The researchers then used
chambers in which a mouse must nose-poke into a hole to get a reward to examine
their motivation.
They found that female
offspring who were given the most nutrients during early life learned much
quicker.
And they were also more motivated to obtain the sugary reward, the study
published in The FASEB Journal found.
Furthermore, the nutrient
supplementation also reversed some of the deficits observed due to high-fat
feeding during pregnancy.
Dr Thoru Pederson, editor of
the journal, said: 'These are provocative findings. So many effects during
pregnancy have been touted as irreversible perhaps not always so.'
This comes after Washington University scientists found in June that
pregnant women who eat high-fat diets risk making their children
obese.
Their study suggested that
gorging on junk food in pregnancy also increases the risk a woman's grandchildren
and great-grandchildren being overweight.