Mother’s Pregnancy Weight Linked to Child’s Obesity
More than 26 percent of American adults were obese as of 2009—compared with less than 20 percent in 2000, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the number of U.S. states with more than 30 percent of their population topping a body mass index (BMI) of 30 tripled between 2007 and 2009. With this accelerating epidemic, researchers are looking for clues beyond daily diet and exercise to explain our propensity for extra poundage—and many are finding evidence in the very first stages of life.
A growing number of analyses have found a convincing link among a heavier mother-to-be, increases in her baby’s birth weight, and the child’s later risk of obesity. In many past observational studies, however, basic genetics or environmental factors could be blamed for this association.
A new study of 513,501 mothers and 1,164,750 of their children born across 15 years aimed to take genetics out of the equation by assessing maternal and infant weight only for those women who had more than one child. “By making comparisons of two or more infants born to the same mother, we were able to factor out the role of genetics,” says David Ludwig, an associate professor of pediatrics, director of the Obesity Program at Children’s Hospital Boston and co-author of the new study.
Women who gained more than 24 kilograms during a pregnancy (which occurred in about 12 percent of pregnancies) added an average of 147.4 additional grams to their baby’s birth weight than those who gained about 7.5 to 10 kilograms. In other terms, pregnant women who gained 22.5 kilograms had double the risk of having an infant with a high birth weight compared with those who only gained about nine kilograms. And every kilogram gained during pregnancy increased a baby’s weight by about 9.5 grams, according to the analysis, which published online August 4 in The Lancet.
Being heavier at birth increases the odds that an individual will be overweight or obese as a child—as well as an adult. And the excess weight has been linked to a range of chronic conditions, including asthma, diabetes and metabolic syndrome (a group of metabolic risk factors).
Although previous studies had correlated high BMI moms with heavier babies, “the direct effects of excessive weight gain on the fetus have never been conclusively demonstrated,” notes Ludwig, who worked on the study with collaborator Janet Currie, a professor of economics at Columbia University.
The importance of grams
The ill effects of undernourishment on fetal development have been well documented. A pregnant woman who does not get ample calories for her and her fetus increases the risk the baby will have stunted physical growth, poor cognitive development, and be more susceptible to diseases. The health risks of too many calories, however, are just beginning to come to light.
To be sure, a heavier fetus will tilt the pregnant mother’s scale slightly, and the amount of weight typically put on my moms gaining too much during pregnancy far exceeds the additional ounces their babies typically take on.
Nevertheless, although 0.2 kilogram of additional baby fat might not sound like much, in the context of a three- to 3.5-kilogram infant, every 0.03 kilogram changes the odds ratio, according to Ludwig.
Other research indicates that infant birth weight is also heavily determined by a woman’s weight even before she becomes pregnant. A study published in June in the European Journal of Pediatrics reported that being overweight or obese before getting pregnant meant that a mother’s future child was 1.4 times more likely to be overweight or obese by age four. “It means preconception health screening and intervention for overweight and obese [women] is extremely important,” says Panagiota Kitsantas, an assistant professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at George Mason University’s Department of Health Administration and Policy and lead author of the June paper.
Although her investigation did not specifically look at women with more than one child and thus could have been colored by other genetic and environmental factors, Kitsantas says that the results from her work and The Lancet report are complementary. “Both studies pointed to one direction: mothers’ body weight affected their offspring’s weight.”
Underlying changes
Extra birth weight might not be the only change many of these infants face. Excessive maternal weight during pregnancy is also likely changing the metabolic and hormonal environment of the developing fetus, Ludwig says.
Even if an infant has a few extra ounces due to a mother’s excessive gestational weight gain, “the infant developed in a metabolically abnormal intrauterine environment,” Ludwig explains.
Excessive caloric intake by a pregnant woman can stimulate the overgrowth of fetal tissues, change hormonal balances, alter metabolic pathways, “and perhaps even structures in the brain that regulate appetite and metabolism,” he says. And those changes might stay with an individual for life.
Many adults have a difficult time losing weight and keeping it off, and if the body is predisposed to putting on the pounds, fighting obesity on both individual and societal levels will be even more challenging.
Researchers are still working to understand just how some of these pathways and hormones can influence disease risk, primarily through animal studies in the lab. And until more chemical links are found, a direct cause-and-effect relationship cannot be established, Kitsantas notes.
She applauds the new work, noting that Ludwig and colleagues used apt statistical models to try to avoid confounding effects and excluded subjects with other risk factors such as gestational diabetes or extremely high birth weight. Kitsantas is not entirely convinced, however, that genetics can be erased from the picture, and asserts that more lab work remains to be done to parse out nature, nurture and nutrition.
Prepregnancy health
Not every baby born on the heavy side will battle obesity or related chronic diseases. But, Ludwig points out, “on a population basis, [increased birth weight] is shifting risk upward.”
The amount of weight pregnant women are putting on has been growing—as has their prepregnancy weight in the past few decades, Ludwig notes. Alongside that trend are signs that average birth weight is also headed upward.
“If we don’t stop the vicious cycle at some point, we’ll just keep going and going,” Kitsantas says. If female babies are born more prone to obesity, the likelihood of their gaining too much weight before or during pregnancy increases, thus putting their offspring at greater risk.
Even though the specific mechanisms at work remain poorly understood and there is still not enough evidence to draw a cause-and-effect conclusion between maternal weight and a child’s risk for obesity, Kitsantas says that is not reason enough to delay action. “We really have to jump in based on the findings we have to create specific interventions to fix the problem.”
Ludwig acknowledges that the challenge of getting Americans to stay fit is great but says that changing the habits of mothers-to-be might be a little easier. “Women tend to be especially motivated during pregnancy because it’s not just their health [that is] at stake—it’s their children’s,” he notes. “Almost every mother instinctively wants to give their children a healthy start in life.”
And, along with physical activity, food quality is just as important as quantity, he says. “The higher quality of diet consumed, the easier it is to maintain a health body weight,” says Ludwig, who has been working on a new study comparing the effects of two different diets on maternal and infant health. “The best time to begin obesity prevention efforts for the next generation is actually prior to birth,” he says.
Kitsantas extends that recommendation, suggesting that all women of childbearing age establish healthy lifestyle habits and healthy weights: “The sooner the better,” she says.
5 Reasons Starvation Diets Make You Fatter
Traditionally, fasting has been employed as a religious ritual used to exercise self-discipline and heighten spiritual awareness. Recently the practice of abstaining from eating, or “starvation diets” as we will call them here, has become a trendy way to obtain fast weight-loss results in a society which hasn’t got time to do things properly. A common statement we hear from clients is, “I’ll just not eat breakfast and that will usually help me get into my wedding, evening, party dress!” – but here is why fasting can ultimately leave you fatter
While one-day fasts pose no serious threat for healthy adults, longer fasts (more than 24 hours) can have grave results. Whether it’s a ‘water-only’ detox fast, skipping meals or surviving on just cabbage soup or grapefruit, the body only recognizes one thing – starvation.
Low calorie dieting slows your metabolism making it progressively more difficult to lose weight and keep it off. Quite simply, your body goes into ‘starvation mode’. This mechanism means the body becomes very efficient at making the most of the calories it does get from food and drink. The main way it does this is to protect its fat stores and instead use lean tissue or muscle to provide it with some of the calories it needs to keep functioning.
This loss of muscle lowers the metabolic rate so that the body needs fewer calories to keep ticking over and weight loss slows down. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. It requires a certain number of calories each day to maintain itself. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn even when you’re just sitting around. As your muscle mass drops, so does your daily calorie requirement.
So, before you skip a meal, ‘feast’ on a bowl of cabbage soup, or finish that first and only grapefruit of the day, read about the top three dangers of starvation dieting, and find out what you should be doing to keep your metabolism revved up and burning calories.
Starvation dieting dangers
1. Starvation results in rapid initial weight loss
Under normal circumstances, the principle fuel for the body is glucose. The brain, in particular, must receive a constant supply of glucose in order to function properly. During a period of calorie restriction (such as during a fast), glucose, which is stored in the liver as glycogen, is used first to supply energy.
Glycogen is stored with water, so when it is broken down for energy, water will be released as well. It is this fluid that is responsible for the rapid weight loss that occurs in the first one to two days (anywhere between three to five pounds per day) of severely calorie-restricted diets, such as the Hollywood Miracle Diet, Cabbage Soup Diet and The Grapefruit Diet, all of which claim that you can lose ten pounds in two days.
Consequences: If it sounds too good to be true, it is. This weight loss doesn’t last. When normal eating is resumed, glucose and water stores will be replenished and the original body weight will be attained.
The rapid loss of fluid can also lead to the loss of electrolytes and dehydration, so the only things ‘cleansed’ from the body are the minerals needed for muscle contractions, nerve transmissions, regulation of body fluids and other physiological functions.
The sudden drop in sugar in the blood, as glycogen stores are diminished, will result in tiredness, confusion and mood swings. These are the symptoms that are often mistakenly thought to be the first step in the cleansing process of a detox diet.
2. Cutting calories slows down weight loss,
The liver only stores enough glycogen to last for one day, so when fasting lasts longer than 24 hours, the body will turn to muscle to produce glucose for energy. After following a very low-calorie diet or fast for one week, 30 per cent of the total weight loss is muscle, the rest is fluid.
The amount of muscle in the body sets your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories). So, as muscle is lost, they perform less metabolic work, saving calories and energy. In short, your rate of weight loss will slow down.
In fact, most two or three-day crash diets that claim to burn fat, only burn away metabolically active muscle tissue and actually hinder long-term weight loss. When you eat a meal, overall metabolism is increased due to the energy required for digestion and absorption of the meal. Skipping a meal will have the reverse effect, decreasing the metabolism, which lasts until you eat something.
Overall, the body will save, rather than burn, calories to ensure it has adequate energy during the times of fasting. So, meal skipping to avoid unwanted calories is a counter-productive method for sustained weight loss.
Consequences: When the fast is over and calorie levels are increased to a normal level, weight gain will happen faster and the weight will come back as fat, since your metabolic rate has slowed, so you may even end up heavier than before you began dieting! The loss of muscle will have an effect on your ability to maintain weight loss in the long term, unless muscle is regained by exercising.
3. Starvation leads to low amounts of nutrients for liver function
The Liver is the main organ of detoxification and requires nutrients to help this happen. When you have a healthy liver, your body allows fat stores to diminish. Excess toxins in the blood that can’t be removed from circulation due to low nutrient status means that the body will create increased fat stores to “save or store” the processing for later when the body has more of these important nutrients which allow the liver to function properly.
On starvation calorie low diets, this time never comes, and as soon as more normal eating pattern is resumed the fat stores replenish more rapidly than before, this is why most calorie reduction diets leave dieters heavier than before they started, a common theme in over 90%.
4. Starvation results in fatigue
Body protein provides most of the energy needed during the first few days of a fast, but after that the body will adapt to using fat for energy in an attempt to preserve muscle.
Fat is then metabolised to ketones, which can be used by the brain for energy. However, prolonged inadequate carbohydrate intake results in the build-up of ketones, which become toxic, resulting in an unpleasant condition called ketosis.
Consequences: The kidneys and liver become burdened with toxic waste from the breakdown of fat and muscle tissue so the body?s normal functions are disrupted. Ketosis can cause fatigue, constipation, nausea and vomiting. The potential long-term side effects of ketosis include heart disease, bone loss and kidney damage.
In addition, the lack of calories will deprive your body of essential vitamins and minerals, so hair, nails and skin will show signs of deterioration. So if you try fasting as a means of detoxifying or cleansing the body, you will actually achieve the opposite effect.
5. Starvation leads to fat around the middle
The stress hormone cortisol is known to be associated to umbilical fat, also known as hard to shift fat around the middle. Cortisol is a gluco-corticoid which means that its released to help mobilize glucose in times of emergency, such as starvation, to allow the muscles to act if you needed to move or work. It is designed to help you survive.
So when your body is void of calories from food and you have to move, work, think, your body will send out cortisol to help you achieve these short term “emergencies”. In the long term this leads to hard to lose fat around your waistline, also known as a “muffin top”
The true fast-track to weight loss
The safest, most sensible route to achieving long-term weight loss is adopting healthy eating habits, which endure long after the pounds have been lost. You’ll also want to keep your metabolism revved up to burn calories rather than save them. This can be achieved by:
Having breakfast
A balanced morning meal kick-starts your metabolism after your body has been deprived of food throughout the night. Skipping breakfast keeps your metabolism running slow and you will save rather than burn any calories you eat later in the day.
Snacking frequently
Eating smaller, frequent meals will keep your metabolism busy throughout the day. Snacking also prevents you from becoming too hungry. The hungrier you are, the less control you have over what and how much you eat.
Exercising
Cardiovascular fitness activities such as walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, aerobics and dancing, speed up your metabolism for several hours after your workout, so additional calories will be burned off long after you stop moving.
Resistance or Lifting weights
Body weight exercise or lifting weights will build and tone muscle, which burns up to five times more calories than fat, even when your body is at rest. More muscletone means more calories burned and more weight lost over time.
Eating according to your activities
If you do most of your physical activity during the day, make breakfast and lunch larger meals than your evening meal, so you have enough energy to get everything done throughout the day.
Drinking plenty of water
Your metabolism needs water to function properly. Remember, the recommendation is to drink between one and two litres per day.
NOTE: Fasting and fad diets can be very dangerous for individuals with chronic conditions such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, liver or kidney disease, infection or pregnancy.
References
MF Ball, JJ Canary, LH Kyle -Comparative Effects of Caloric Restriction and Total Starvation on Body Composition in Obesity Annals of Internal Medicine, 1967 – Am Coll Physicians Christy F. Telch and W. Stewart Agras - Behavior Therapy Volume 24, Issue 2, Spring 1993, Pages 177-193 Michael Kofflera and Eldad S. Kisch, Starvation diet and very-low-calorie diets may induce insulin resistance and overt diabetes mellitus, Journal of Diabetes and its Complications
Volume 10, Issue 2, March-April 1996, Pages 109-112
An Apple a Day
Its an old mother’s tale that, ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ — but new research shows interestingly that it may specifically be helpful in protecting against breast cancer.
At Cornell University’s department of food science and Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, researchers randomly divided rats treated with a known mammary carcinogen into different groups, feeding them either low, middle or high doses of Red Delicious apple extracts (the equivalent of one, three and six apples a day in humans, respectively) or a control extract. Rats fed the strongest apple extract experienced the lowest cancer rate (40% developed cancer)… followed by the group fed middle-strength extract (43%)… and the lowest strength extract (59%). In comparison, 71% of those fed the apple-free control extract developed mammary cancer over the 24-week study period. The study appeared in the December 10, 2008, online edition of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
WHAT’S THE SECRET?
According to researcher Rui Hai Liu, MD, PhD, associate professor of food science at Cornell University, the study demonstrated not only that apple extracts effectively inhibited the growth of mammary tumors in the rats but that the more administered, the greater the anticancer effect. “Not only did animals treated with apple extract have fewer tumors overall, the tumors were smaller, less likely to be malignant and grew more slowly when compared with tumors in the untreated animals,” he said.
Why are apples so powerful against breast cancer, I wondered? Dr. Liu explained to me that apples are one of the best sources of phenolics and flavonoids, which are phytochemicals (bioactive compounds) that have powerful antioxidant and anti-proliferative (antigrowth) effects in the body. In two previous studies, Dr. Liu and his colleagues discovered that phytochemicals from apples effectively inhibited the growth of human breast cancer cells. In another study, Dr. Liu found that phytochemicals from apple peels inhibited an important inflammation pathway, NFkB, in human breast cancer cells, thereby reducing the proliferation of the cancer.
Dr. Liu told me that although other fruits and vegetables also contain phenolics and flavonoids, apples are one of the best dietary sources of fruit phenolics. In fact, of the top 25 fruits consumed in the US, apples provide 33% of the phenolics that Americans consume annually. “Americans love to eat apples, so it makes sense to encourage them as part of a balanced diet for optimal health,” he said, adding that this doesn’t mean anyone should forsake other fruits and vegetables. “It’s clear that regular consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains can help to prevent chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer,” Dr. Liu said.
Source(s):
Rui Hai Liu, MD, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of food science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
How Sleep Effects YOUR Hormones
This article is intended to assist mothers to be looking to get healthier, so that they can become pregnant, and also mothers who have got their little ones back into some sort of nightly routine. For those in between, don’t despair….it won’t be long till your back to top energy levels if you heed this advice!
An important lifestyle step to master is maximizing the rest and repair processes that are accomplished through adequate sleep. Although mothering is an inherently natural thing, we have in many ways separated ourselves from dependence on the natural world, but remember we are still physiologically linked to nature.
Biological Clocks
Our link to nature is clearly seen in our sleep patterns and in our hormonal system. Our hormones are intimately linked to several natural rhythms or biological clocks. These biological rhythms are based on the twenty-four hour cycle of daylight and darkness as well as the monthly cycle of the moon.
Twenty-Four Hour Adrenal Hormone Cycle
Just like the monthly biological clock in females, both men and women, have twenty-four hour cycles, or daily clocks. While fluctuations in female hormone production vary with a monthly cycle, the adrenal hormone cortisol varies with a twenty-four hour or daily cycle. Cortisol levels peak in the early morning hours as the sun rises and taper off as the sun sets, reaching their lowest levels three hours after dark. This daily rhythm of cortisol dictates when we should be our most active and when we should rest.
Any time you fly and change time zones, the importance of this twenty-four hour biological clock becomes clear. Even a time change of a few hours can be enough to throw off one’s normal sleep cycle. Cortisol not only dictates our sleep and wake states; it is also the primary hormone involved in directing immune system functioning.
Immune Trafficking Cycle
Have you ever wondered why your cold or flu symptoms get worse at night? It’s because the twenty-four hour rhythm of cortisol production regulates your immune system as well. As cortisol drops at night, our immune cells become more active. These cells leave the bone marrow and spleen to protect you while you rest. During this highly active period of immune function, immune cells kill bacteria and viruses. This basic immune activity relies on appropriate levels of cortisol. As cortisol drops at night, our immune system activity picks up, killing bacteria and viruses in large numbers leading to greater mucous production. This leads to more congestion and coughing at night as your body attempts to get rid of the mucous created from destroying bacteria and viruses. At daybreak, cortisol rises and immune cells return to the bone marrow and spleen to rest and recondition in preparation for the next nightly cycle.
Natural Sleep Cycle
If cortisol is out of balance, this normal immune function is compromised. As mentioned earlier, cortisol levels rise at daybreak giving us the energy to begin the working day. As cortisol drops naturally at night, we enter into rest and recovery, physical repair and psychic regeneration. Our immune system functions optimally if we to go to sleep by 10 p.m. As we sleep, physical repair takes place, immune cells patrol our bodies, eliminating cancer cells, bacteria, viruses and other harmful agents. However, if cortisol is elevated at night this immune function is compromised. If cortisol levels are normal during sleep, then true rest and recovery takes place thereby enhancing physical repair and immunity.
During sleep we also enter into stages of psychic regeneration. During these times, the brain releases chemicals that enhance our immune system. All during the night, we are going into Rapid Eye Movement (or REM) sleep states and non-REM sleep, alternating between light sleep and deep dream states. This is how we process the mental and emotional events of the previous day and refresh our minds for the day ahead. Most people need seven to eight hours of sleep to accomplish all these tasks. Without sufficient sleep, the immune system is hard pressed to keep up with its repair work and this creates the opportunity for disease processes to begin. If you miss out on proper rest, your physical repair and psychic regeneration will be compromised.
Will Your Little One Be Sweet as Sugar?
Children’s Confectionary Intake Linked to Aggression in Adulthood
An interesting new study published in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry has found that children who eat sweets and chocolate on a daily basis are more likely to display violent behaviour as adults.
Researchers from Cardiff University looked at data from almost 17,500 participants in the 1970 British Cohort Study. Results significantly showed that 10 year olds who had a daily intake of sweets and chocolate were more likely to have been convicted for violence by the age of 34.
This is the first study of its kind to look at the long-term effects of diet in childhood on adult behaviour.
The researchers found that 69% of the study participants who were violent at the age of 34 consumed confectionary daily during childhood compared to 42% who were non-violent.
Commenting on possible explanations for this link, lead researcher, Dr Simon Moore commented, “Our favoured explanation is that giving children sweets and chocolate regularly may stop them learning how to wait to obtain something they want. Not being able to defer gratification may push them towards more impulsive behaviour, which is strongly associated with delinquency”.
They concluded: “This association between confectionary consumption and violence needs further attention. Targeting resources at improving children’s diet may improve health and reduce aggression”.
Sources:
Moore SC, Carter LM and Van Goozen SHM. Confectionary consumption in childhood and adult violence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 195: 366-367
6 Food Mistakes Parents Make
Here’s a look at six common mistakes parents make when feeding their children.
1. Sending Children Out of the Kitchen
It is understandable that parents don’t want children close to hot stoves, boiling water and sharp knives. But studies suggest that involving children in meal preparation is an important first step in getting them to try new foods.
2. Pressuring Them to Take a Bite
Demanding that a child eat at least one bite of everything is likely to backfire. Studies show that children react negatively when parents pressure them to eat foods, even if the pressure offers a reward.
3. Keeping “Good Stuff” Out of Reach
Parents worry that children will binge on treats, so they often put them out of sight or on a high shelf. But a large body of research shows that if a parent restricts a food, children just want it more.
4. Dieting in Front of Your Children
Kids are tuned into their parents’ eating preferences and are far more likely to try foods if they see their mother or father eating them. Parents who are trying to lose weight should be aware of how their dieting habits can influence a child’s perceptions about food and healthful eating.
5. Serving Boring Vegetables
Calorie-counting parents often serve plain steamed vegetables, so it’s no wonder children are reluctant to eat them. Nutritionists say parents shouldn’t be afraid to dress up the vegetables.
6. Giving Up Too Soon
Eating preferences often change. Parents should keep preparing a variety of healthful foods and putting them on the table, even if a child refuses to take a bite. In young children, it may take 10 or more attempts over several months to introduce a food.
Sources:
- New York Times September 14, 2008
Study Shows Probiotics Reduce Newborn’s Eczema by 58%
A new study from the Netherlands has shown that daily probiotic supplementation may reduce the risk of eczema by 58% during the first three months of a child’s life.
In the study, 157 pregnant women were randomly assigned to receive the probiotic mixture or placebo for the last two weeks of pregnancy. The infants then received the supplements for their first year of life. The probiotic supplement contained a mixture of Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium lactis (infantis) and Lactococcus lactis.
Results showed that parental-reported eczema was 58% lower in the intervention group, compared with placebo during the first three months of life, after which the incidence of eczema was similar between the two groups. 
The researchers commented, “The results of this study suggest that primary prevention of eczema by perinatal administration of probiotic bacteria indeed involves modulation of the early colonisation of the intestinal microbiota, which may result in modulating the development and maturation of the infants’ immune system”.
Eczema is an early sign of allergy during the first few months of life and experts believe is due to delayed development of the immune system. According to the American Academy of Dermatologists, it affects between 10 to 20% of all infants.