Baby formula ‘targets obesity’

Baby foods supplemented with the hunger hormone leptin could programme young people against obesity, new research suggests.

Scientists at the Clore laboratory at the University of Buckingham are developing infant formula and other foods which they believe could help people to remain permanently slim.

Leptin sends a message to the brain to tell the body that it is no longer hungry and is produced throughout life.

Previous research investigating whether treatments with the hormone could help adults lose weight was not successful as individuals soon seemed to resist leptin’s effect.

But, the journal Chemistry & Industry reports today, new studies at the Clore laboratory involving rats suggest that treating people with the hormone at early stages in life could prove more successful.

The researchers found that supplementing infant rats’ diets with leptin resulted in them remaining slim and not developing diabetes.

And when fed to pregnant rats, leptin had a positive effect on their offspring’s predisposition to obesity. Animals born of leptin-treated mothers remained lean even when fed a fat-laden diet.

Responding to the report, Professor Jonathan Seckl of Edinburgh University, told Chemistry & Industry: “We need to know whether leptin is acting pre- and post-natally, figure out how it works, and dissect the possible side-effects before this becomes a potential approach for humans. Nonetheless, this is good science.”

But Dr David Haslam, clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said that he only welcomed the research in as far as “the science of obesity has to be explored”.

He added that the “preposterous” idea that leptin could be used instead of the “right education” about healthy lifestyles will not happen “in a million years”.