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The overweight or obesity rate of Chinese children and adolescents is increasing at an astonishing rate. Data from the "Report on Nutrition and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Residents (2020)" shows that the proportion of overweight among children aged 16 to 17 years old is 11.1%, and the proportion of obesity is 7.9%; the rate of overweight among children under 6 years old is 6.8%, and the rate of obesity is 3.6% .
One of the potential factors that lead to overweight or obesity in children and adolescents is unhealthy eating habits, such as regular consumption of sausages, fries, bread, instant noodles, fried chicken nuggets, biscuits and other super-processed foods. Although delicious, these foods usually contain higher calories, sugar, sodium and saturated fatty acids, which can have adverse health effects. So is obesity between children and and teenagers related to their mother's eating habits?
Screenshot Source: BMJ
Recently, a cohort study published in BMJ investigated whether mothers' dietary habits during pregnancy and breastfeeding are related to the fact that offspring experience overweight or obesity in childhood and adolescence. The study found that mothers consumed superprocessed foods during breastfeeding were associated with a 26% increased risk of overweight or obesity in offspring .
In this study, the researchers included 14,553 mothers (single pregnancy) and 19,958 children born to them, thereby analyzing the relationship between mothers' dietary habits during breastfeeding and pregnancy and the weight of offspring. After 4 years of median follow-up, it was found that 2471 people (12.4%) of all offspring were overweight or obese. Researchers also found that the overall intake of super-processed foods for pregnant women from pregnancy to breastfeeding does not change much (Spearman correlation coefficient =0.46, P0.001).
After adjusting the established risk factors of the mother and the risk factors such as intake of superprocessed foods, physical activity and sitting time of offspring, the researchers found that:
Mother's consumption of superprocessed foods during breastfeeding is related to overweight or obesity of offspring . Specifically: the group with the largest intake (Group 5: 12.1 servings/day) increased by 26% compared with the group with the lowest intake of ultra-processed food during lactation (Group 1: 3.4 servings/day) (RR=1.26, 95% CI[1.08~1.47], P0.001).
Mother's consumption of superprocessed food during pregnancy has no significant association with the risk of overweight or obesity in offspring. had no statistically significant increase in the risk of overweight or obesity in offspring compared with the group with the least intake of superprocessed foods (group 1: 3.3 servings/day).
Researchers also found that these associations had no significant relationship with the mother's age and weight, as well as the gender, birth weight and gestational age of offspring. The paper summarized in the paper
that mothers consume superprocessed foods are associated with an increased risk of overweight or obesity in offspring. The study highlights the potential benefits of restricting the consumption of ultra-processed foods for mothers and women of childbearing age to reduce the risk of overweight in children. At the same time, the potential reasons why women consume super-processed foods should not be ignored. , , which helps improve nutrition in women of childbearing age and reduce childhood obesity.
Reference
[1] Wang, Y., Wang, K., Du, M., Khandpur, N., Rossato, S. L., Lo, C. H., ... & Chan, A. T. (2022). Maternal consumption of ultra-processed foods and subsequent risk of offspring overweight or obesity: results from three prospective cohort studies. bmj, 379.
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