Maternal consumption of ultra-processed foods appears to be associated with being overweight or with an increased risk of being overweight. obesity to her children, according to a new study.
Of the 19,958 mother-infant pairs studied, 12.4% of children developed obesity or overweight in the full analysis study group, and the offspring of mothers who ate the most ultra-processed foods were at risk of obesity/overweight. 26% higher (12.1) Andrew T. Chan, M.P.H., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues reported consumption compared to the lowest (3.4 servings/day). I’m here.
This study demonstrates the potential benefits of limiting ultra-processed food consumption among women and mothers of reproductive age. childhood obesitythe investigator points out.
“These data support the importance of improving dietary recommendations and developing programs to improve nutrition in women of reproductive age to promote the health of their offspring,” they said. wrote in the article. It was published of BMJMore.
“As a medical and public health community, the period during which a woman is pregnant with or raising a child is a unique opportunity for interventions that can affect both women’s and women’s health. For the health of mothers and children,” Chan said. Medscape Medical News in an interview.
Addressing these trends at both the individual clinician level and the society level is critical, Chan said.
“This is a good time to counsel patients about the potential associations with consuming ultra-processed foods for themselves as well as their children. I think it makes me think more favorably about diet.how,” he added.
But because ultra-processed foods are affordable and convenient, and many communities don’t have easy access to fresh, healthy food, “it’s a must.” [clinicians] Make it a priority and break down the social and economic barriers that make it difficult to eat healthy, unprocessed foods,” Chan elaborated.
Evaluation of maternal junk food intake during pregnancy and childhood
The modern Western diet often includes ultra-processed foods associated with weight gain in adults, such as packaged baked goods and snacks, sodas, and sugary cereals. Researchers note that the relationship between parental consumption of a diet that is highly processed and body weight in offspring is unclear across generations.
Therefore, they set out to determine whether eating ultra-processed foods during pregnancy and during parenting increases the risk of overweight and obesity in children and teens.
The research team evaluated 14,553 mothers and 19,958 children from the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS I and II) and Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II) in the United States. Males made up her 45% of the children in the study, and the ages of the children ranged from her 7 to his 17.
NHS II is an ongoing study tracking the lifestyle and health choices of over 100,000 female registered nurses in the United States in 1989, and GUTS I covers approximately 17,000 children of NHS II nurses. I was doing it. The GUTS I participant completed an initial Lifestyle and Health Survey, assessed annually between 1997 and her 2001, and every two years thereafter.
About 11,000 children from NHS II were included in GUTS II. The children were evaluated further in 2006, 2008 and 2011, after which he was evaluated every two years.
Participants were followed until children reached 18 years of age or experienced the onset of obesity and overweight. The subcohort consisted of her 2925 mother-infant pairs with data on eating patterns during pregnancy.
Maternal ultra-processed food intake during parenting was associated with obesity and overweight in children. The cohort with the highest ultra-processed food intake (12.1 servings/day) had a 26% higher risk. Intake, physical activity, and established maternal risk factors.
Despite increased rates, consumption of ultra-processed foods during pregnancy was not significantly associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity or overweight (P. for trends = .07).
sex, birth weight, age, gestation periodor maternal weight did not affect these correlations.
Limitations of this study included the fact that some of the paired children were missing during follow-up, and misreporting of the data because weight and diet measurements were provided by self-reported questionnaires. possible, and potential residual confounding considering observational studies. Design, researchers note.
Other limitations included that the mothers involved in the study came from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, had similar personal and family education status, and were predominantly Caucasian. This limits the generalization of these data to other ethnic groups.
“Further research is needed to investigate the specific biological mechanisms and socioeconomic determinants underlying the observed association between maternal ultraprocessed food intake and offspring overweight and obesity. ‘, the researchers concluded.
BMJMore 2022;379:e071767. full text
Ashley Lyles is an award-winning medical journalist. She graduated from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. Previously, she studied professional writing at Michigan State University. Her work has gone to Honduras, Cambodia, France and Ghana and has been featured in The New York Times Daily 360, PBS NewsHour, The Huffington Post, Undark, The Root, Psychology Today, Insider, Tonic (Health by Vice) and other publications. Among them.
