We all know that eating a diet high in fat will have an adverse affect on our own health, causing weight problems, heart attacks, diabetes and a myriad of other issues. It’s even somewhat easy to see that your dietary choices can have a negative affect on the health of your children. Recent obesity research has backed this up.
But, can a mother’s diet during pregnancy even affect her grandkids? New research seems to point to this reality. The research was presented last week at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting in Washington D.C.
During the study, a selection of pregnant rats were fed a diet high in omega-6 fat while others in the study ingested standard fare. After the babies were delivered, all the mothers, their children and their eventual grandchildren ate healthy moderate-fat diets. Granddaughters of the rats that were fed excess fats during pregnancy had a 30 percent higher chance of developing breast cancer than those with grandparents who ate a diet lower in fats.
For the high-fat diet, the study used a mixture that was 43 percent fat, mostly from omega-6 rich vegetable oil. These fats are also found in non grass-fed beef. The current recommendations call for fat intake below 30 percent, but many Americans eat more than that every day.
Now more than ever, it’s easy to see that good dietary choices can have long term affects – even longer than we once thought.