It has been long said that the unborn child’s growth is vastly dependent upon the kind of diet its mother takes. This statement was recently proved to be right by the results of the research which was carried out by the scientists at the Royal Veterinary College.

The new research indicates that if the pregnant mother constantly feed on Junk food, then there is a very big chance that her unborn child may seeds of heart disease and diabetes.

The study has been published in the recent issue of “The Journal of Physiology.”

The researchers at the Royal Veterinary College did experiment on pregnant female rats. They formed two groups; one group was regularly fed on junk food items like muffins, crisps, sweets, cheese etc, while the controlled group was kept on a healthy diet.
When the female rats which were kept on junk food gave birth, the researchers found that the offspring born to them were overweight and also possessed great taste for junk food like their mothers. They also had extra fat padding around their kidneys. On the contrary the offspring of the controlled group had normal food habits.

The level of cholesterol and triglyceride were also found to be higher in the junk food offspring. These elevated levels of cholesterol and triglyceride and fatty substances in the bloodstream indicate an increased risk of developing heart diseases.

The rats also had higher levels of insulin and glucose, which lead to the threat of type 2 diabetes development. One thing which really surprised the researchers was that the male and the female offspring were affected in opposite ways. Where in male rats, there was high level of insulin but normal level glucose; female rats showed high levels of glucose whereas their insulin level was particularly normal.

Neil Stickland, a co-author of the study said that humans share a number of fundamental biological systems with rats, so there is a good reason to assume the effects in rats may also be the same in humans.

Dr. Pat Goodwin, who spoke on the behalf of the research team, said that women should be cautious as to what they eat during the pregnancy since it is the trying time. Their eating habits affect their offspring and likely have long term consequences.