Can your pregnancy diet prevent childhood obesity?

#nerdalert

GUYS! Remember that study (non peer-reviewed, abstract only... visit http://tinyurl.com/hvo5xvn for a refresher....) on Folic Acid/ Autism that got all the attention last month?

Turns out, there were some other interesting findings (with a different study) on adequate levels of Folate.

(Again... I'm unclear if this is Folate - which comes directly from whole foods, vs Folic Acid- the synthetic form of Folate that is added to most cereals, breads, and is one of the rockstars of your daily prenatal.)

They found that obese pregnant women who consumed "adequate levels of folate" were 43% less likely to have obese children. (The study notes that the obese mothers were more likely to have lower levels of folate than non-obese mothers.)

Here:

"when the researchers examined obese mothers only, they found that children of obese mothers with adequate folate levels (at least 20 nm/L) had a 43 percent lower risk of obesity compared to children of obese mothers with lower folate (less than 20 nm/L). The children in the latter group had higher body mass index-for-age z-scores (BMI-z)--a measure of body fat in children."

One takeaway- many studies I read discuss how an obese mother is likely to have an obese child (obviously), and how scary childhood obesity is. Creating an optimal folate level during pregnancy could be a way to prevent childhood obesity. Very cool!

Source: 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2016/…/160613122220.htm