Pregnant and lactating women should refrain from eating too fatty foods

The early onset of menstruation, which is an indicator of early puberty in girls, is a risk factor for obesity, insulin resistance, adolescent depression and breast cancer in adulthood. There is evidence that combinations of pre- and postpartum effects affect the age at which menstruation begins.

New Zealand scientists at the University of Auckland, working under the guidance of Dr. Deborah Sloboda, studied the effect of prenatal nutrition and nutrition in childhood on puberty in experiments on rats.

The authors fed rats with fat-rich food during pregnancy and lactation. The control group received the usual balanced feed. After stopping feeding with mother's milk, the cubs began to be given regular or fat-rich food. The time of puberty was recorded by traditional methods. In addition, the amount of fat in the body and the levels of sex hormones in the blood were evaluated in mature animals.

Compared to the control group, in animals whose mothers consumed a lot of fatty foods, puberty occurred much earlier. The cubs of the control group mothers kept on a fat-rich diet also matured early, and the combination of a fat-rich maternal diet and the consumption of a large amount of fat in childhood did not enhance the effect exerted by each of the factors separately.

This indicates that the intake of a large amount of fat during intrauterine development has a stronger effect on the period of puberty than the nature of nutrition in childhood.

At a more mature age, mice born to mothers who consumed fat-rich food during pregnancy had a higher amount of body fat, regardless of what food they consumed at an early age.

In addition, changes in the levels of sex hormones were recorded in such animals, including an increased content of the ovarian hormone progesterone in the blood of females.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of ScienceDaily

17.06.2008