(Food-Beverage-News.Com, May 09, 2013 ) San Francisco, CA -- Women who partake in a moderate or high amount of junk food during pregnancy will be much more likely to have children prone to obesity, according to an Australian scientific team. Such children are simply more likely to crave junk food and illicit fatty-food addiction, says the team.
A study that was published in the FASEB journal, noted that children of mothers who ate more junk food during pregnancy showed less sensitivity to opioids and were more likely to overeat when it came to junk food items. The lack of sensitivity was said to exist into the child's adult life, as well.
The study marks the first notation and demonstration of the long-term impacts of improper dieting during the gestation period as well as during breastfeeding.
Dr. Bev Muhlhausler of Adelaide University stated that mothers who partook in junk food consumption were more likely to impede the ability of their offspring to respond to opioids. Such an effect meant the child was more likely to eat larger amounts of the junk food in order to feel good. Essentially, the study noted that the tolerance to feeling satisfaction from eating salty, fatty, and sugary items was more prevalent in such children.
"We found that the opioid-signaling pathway [the reward pathway] in these offspring was less sensitive than those whose mothers were eating a standard diet," she said.
"This means that children being born to a mother who ate a diet dominated by junk food would need to eat more fat and sugar to get the same good feeling, increasing their preference for junk food. It would also encourage them to overeat."
The major finding in the study is that the effect appears permanent for such children. "Mothers eating a lot of junk food while pregnant are setting up their children to be addicted," she said.
Such research is now underscoring what was already well known among many: The consumption of non-nutritious items during pregnancy and breast feeding not only affects the well being of the mother, but also the general permanent health of the child.
Scientists and doctors have known for some time that alcohol and nicotine consumption had its negative effects. While many also used inductive reasoning to assume even moderate levels of junk food was not good for the mother and child, the new evidence now underscores that assumption and critically true.
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