Study identifies drivers of child obesity
A recent study to understand and prevent childhood obesity discovered that the nutrients mums receive before and during pregnancy can make a real difference in how much weight their children put on in the first years of their life.
The international research involved around 500 mothers and their children from New Zealand, Singapore and Britain. According to the study published in the peer-reviewed medical journal BMC Medicine, half the mothers in the study received an enriched supplement including vitamins B2, B6, B12, D, probiotics and myoinositol, together with only standard pregnancy supplementation, while the other half were in a control group and received standard pregnancy supplementation. During the study, neither the mums nor their medical teams knew which group they were in.
When researchers checked in on the children at age two years, they found half as many obese children in the cohort whose mothers were in the enriched supplement group, compared to the control group. In addition, children of the mums in the enriched supplement group were almost 25 per cent less likely to have experienced “rapid weight gain”, a condition which often leads to obesity.
“The data suggests supplementing mums before and during pregnancy can have benefits way beyond the pregnancy period for children as well as the mothers,” said University of Auckland's Liggins Institute Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology, Wayne Cutfield. "It can impact the baby through childhood and potentially beyond," he said.
He further added that the next stage of the research is to try to identify which of the various nutrients in the supplement are producing beneficial impacts in terms of reducing or preventing unhealthy weight gain.
"We do not know the precise mechanism yet, but there's evidence that some of the micronutrients are associated with body metabolism during pregnancy," he said. The research team will continue to look at the impact of the study on the children when they are between six and eight years old.
“Rates of childhood obesity are continuing to rise in many countries, particularly in less advantaged groups. The period before and during pregnancy may provide an opportunity to support better nutritional status for the mother as it could have lasting benefits for her child,” said University of Southampton Professor, Keith Godfrey.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2024.