Does Overeating in Pregnancy Make Kids Obese?
Well-meaning parents may unintentionally foster a tendency toward obesity in their children, according to two recent studies. Mothers who overeat early in pregnancy and parents who overfeed newborns with a low birth weight could inadvertently trigger metabolic changes that contribute to making their children obese. Experimental evidence in animals now suggests that a high-calorie diet during early pregnancy boosts the level of the appetite-regulating hormone known as leptin. Ironically, flooding the brain with leptin appears to overwhelm the normal mechanism for controlling appetite. Previous research has shown that some obese people have three or four times as much leptin as thin people. The Australian paper The Age describes the research but adds that some obstetricians say it’s premature to apply the findings in animals to humans. Other evidence, however, supports the idea that too much food early in life affects the risk for obesity later on. Philip James, head of the Rowett Resear
