High-fat prenatal diet linked to obesity

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, June 17 (UPI) -- A high-fat diet during pregnancy and nursing may lead to the child having an early onset of puberty and later adulthood obesity, New Zealand researchers say.

Lead author Deborah Sloboda of The Liggins Institute of the University of Auckland in New Zealand said an early first menstrual period is a risk factor for obesity, insulin resistance, teenage depression and breast cancer in adulthood.

Sloboda and colleagues fed pregnant rats a high-fat diet throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding. Control rats received a regular diet of rat chow. After weaning, the offspring ate either regular chow or a high-fat diet.

The study found that the onset of puberty was much earlier in all rats whose mothers had a high-fat diet, compared to the control rodents.

The control rats' offspring that ate a high-fat diet after weaning also entered puberty early. The combination of a high-fat maternal diet -- inside the mother's womb -- and a high-fat diet after birth did not make the early-onset puberty any earlier, Sloboda said.

"This might suggest that the fetal environment in high-fat fed mothers plays a greater role in determining pubertal onset than childhood nutrition," Sloboda said in a statement.

The findings were reported at The Endocrine Society's 90th annual meeting in San Francisco.