Mum’s diet of good fats could protect babies from heart disease

New Australian research has linked certain foods eaten by women while pregnant to serious health conditions like heart disease and cancer in later life.

PREGNANT women could help protect their babies from future heart disease and cancer by avoiding a fatty diet, new Australian research has revealed.

The study, led by University of Sydney researcher and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow, Associate Professor Michael Skilton, investigated whether a mother’s intake of fats and carbohydrates during pregnancy could be linked to a genetic process called epigenetic ageing in babies and if this process might increase the babies’ risk of developing heart disease as adults.

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They found a higher maternal intake of saturated and monosaturated fat was associated with changes to the genetic process in the babies and that this process begins before birth.

The research shows a link between a pregnant mums’ fatty diet to a range of serious health conditions in the baby’s later life.

Epigenetics investigates how the activity of genes can be changed, without changing the DNA structure.

Epigenetic age acceleration is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and other diseases in adults.

But little is known about this process in babies and what it means for their lifelong risk factors for heart disease and other conditions.

Analysing saliva from the babies, the researchers found there was a higher rate of epigenetic ageing in babies whose mothers ate more saturated and monosaturated fat during pregnancy. These babies, especially girls, were also more likely to have more body fat than other babies.

Heart Foundation chief medical adviser and cardiologist Professor Garry Jennings.

They found that in preterm babies, those with greater epigenetic ageing also had a thicker wall of the aorta, the main blood vessel that supplies oxygen-rich blood to the circulatory system.

While the researchers found there was a link between higher fat intake in pregnant women and “accelerated epigenetic ageing”, they could not say if it the fats directly caused this.

Professor Skilton said further research was needed to determine if that was the case.

The Heart Foundation, which was a major funder of the study, welcomes the findings.

Heart Foundation chief medical adviser and cardiologist, Professor Garry Jennings, said the study contributed to an emerging area of research.

“Understanding how a mother’s environment, including her diet, affects the epigenetics of a newborn is an important first step in understanding the risk of developing chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease in the future,” Professor Jennings said.

The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.