There is a strong link between overweight mothers and overweight children, but British researchers concluded that babies born to overweight women probably are not “programmed” to be fat as a result.
The researchers examined the developmental overnutrition hypothesis, which is the idea that a woman who is overweight during pregnancy has higher blood levels of sugar and fatty acids that may predispose the developing child to poor appetite control and slower metabolism.
While this theory was deemed unlikely, the study of over 4,000 women and their children did show that mothers are in some way involved in their children’s obesity.
The researchers found that in cases where children became overweight by age 9 or 11, the mother was more likely to be overweight than the father.
Meanwhile, it’s known that people with certain variants of the “fat mass and obesity associated” gene, or FTO gene, are more likely to become overweight. The study found that inheriting this gene from the mother rather than the father appeared to have a stronger link to becoming overweight, though they aren’t sure why.
