Maternal nutrition before pregnancy can affect offspring, study shows

Dietary habits among women before pregnancy can chemically affect the DNA of future children, a new US study has shown.

Scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have carried out research using mice, which shows that these epigenetic changes can affect the metabolism of fatty acids among offspring.

During the trial, it was demonstrated that providing different diets to mice that were later impregnated affected the ability of the pups' livers to process polyunsaturated fatty acids.

This suggests that mothers' diets could influence their children's susceptibility to conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cancer and immune disorders.

Dr Mihai Niculescu, study author from the Nutrition Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said: "My hope is that … we will reveal this tight biological relationship between us as parents and our children, and how we can improve the lives of our children using our own biological machinery."

Last month, a Swedish report revealed that smoking during pregnancy is associated with wheeze and asthma in children during their early life, even if they were not exposed to passive smoking after being born.