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The impact of maternal high fat nutrition on the next generation: food for thought?

The adverse impact of maternal gestational undernutrition on the development and long-term health of offspring has now been studied extensively, both in humans and animal models, with a range of reported postnatal consequences including increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes, as well as behavioural alterations. However, the increasing prevalence of obesity both in Western and rapidly developing societies raises the question of whether maternal overnutrition may hold similar risks for the developing fetus and its future health. Howie and colleagues (2009) reported recently in The Journal of Physiology that a high fat (HF) diet fed to female rats either throughout life, including pregnancy and lactation, or solely during pregnancy and lactation, resulted in significant changes in offspring phenotype. These included altered birth weight and postnatal growth, increased fat deposition, and changes in leptin and insulin homeostasis. Importantly, their study has shown for the first time that a HF diet consumed solely during pregnancy and lactation was equally as detrimental to the development of offspring as if the mother had experienced a life-long overconsumption of fat (Howie et al. 2009), emphasising the particular importance of maternal diet during pregnancy.