Eating for your children

People who overeat may end up contributing to the poor health of their grandchildren, according to Swedish researchers writing in the November 2002 issue of the European Journal of Human Genetics​.

A study by Gunnar Kaati and his team at the University of Umea suggests that diet, which does not change genes, can nevertheless influence future generations. Genetics research is becoming increasingly important in the fight against an obesity epidemic.

A report in the journal Nature​ describes how the researchers collected health histories of 300 Swedes born between 1890 and 1920. They studied crop records which showed how much this population was eating just before puberty.

Results showed that grandchildren of well-fed grandfathers were four times as likely to die from diabetes and that the children of men who suffered famine were less likely to die from heart disease, reported Nature​.

The report also discusses the 'long-rubbished evolutionary theory,' lamarckism, developed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, whose theory would have supported the idea that diet could have heritable effects. It is generally thought, though, that only genetic changes are inherited.

However, geneticist Marcus Pembrey of the Institute of Child Health in London, told the journal "we have to take this seriously"​. Pembrey suggested that a father's nutrition could change the activity of genes in sperm, rather than the genetic code itself.

The report also suggests an alternative theory - that malnutrition killed off certain children and only those with particular genes, that later predisposed them to diabetes, survived. Yet Kaati found no evidence that more babies died during food shortages.

While there is an obvious need for further research on the subject, the study could give health foods marketers a new direction if current diets can influence the health of future generations.