According to a Rutgers study published in Molecular Metabolism, people whose mothers are overweight during pregnancy and breastfeeding may be obese as adults because early overnutrition primes the developing brain to crave junk food.
Rutgers researchers traced this mother-to-child connection in mice using an experiment that began by feeding some mice unlimited amounts of fatty food during pregnancy and lactation, while keeping others lean on unlimited healthy food. They found that mice born to obese mothers remain lean into adulthood on unlimited healthy food, but overeat more than mice born to lean mothers when given access to junk food.
The findings suggest that while people whose mothers were overweight during pregnancy and breastfeeding may have difficulty cutting back on their snacking, they were able to safely eat healthy foods. The study may also help inform the development of drugs that affect the brain to reduce cravings for junk food.
Over nutrition during pregnancy:
Mark Rossi, Rutgers Robert Wood Professor of Psychiatry Johnson Medical School and lead author of the study says “People born to overweight or obese mothers tend to be heavier as adults than those born to slimmer mothers, and experiments like this suggest that the explanation goes beyond environmental factors such as learning unhealthy eating habits in childhood, Over nutrition during pregnancy and lactation appears to alter the brains of developing children and possibly future generations.”
In the experiment, the researchers fed a high-fat diet to three mouse sisters and a healthy diet to their other three sisters. Once nursing was complete, the researchers turned their attention to nearly 50 pups—which, as expected, started out heavier or lighter depending on their mother’s diet.
Their weights converged (to healthy levels) after all the pups received a few weeks of unlimited healthy food, but diverged again when the researchers offered them continuous access to the high-fat diet. All mice overeat, but the offspring of overweight mothers overeat significantly more than others.
Further analysis showed that the different behavior likely stems from different connections between two parts of the brain – the hypothalamus and the amygdala – that arose as a result of the mothers’ different diets during pregnancy and lactation.
The study has mixed implications for people born to overweight mothers who struggle with their own weight. On the one hand, it suggests the possibility of staying slim while eating healthy food to your heart’s content and avoiding junk food altogether. On the other hand, it suggests that trying to eat moderate amounts of unhealthy treats can encourage overeating and obesity.
Looking ahead, the study’s findings about disrupted brain circuits in two groups of mice may help inform the development of drugs to block excessive cravings for unhealthy foods.
“More work needs to be done because we don’t yet fully understand how these changes happen, even in mice,” Rossi said. “But each experiment tells us a little more, and every little bit we learn about the processes that drive overeating can reveal the strategy of potential therapies.”
Written by: Vaishali Verma
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