Obese Parents Likely to Have Obese Children, Vitamins May Help

A new study of British families shows that obese parents¹ are far more likely to have obese children than normal-weight parents, especially if mom is obese.  Another study shows that a comprehensive multiple vitamin taken during pregnancy can assist growth hormone and leptin status in the newly born child, key factors for optimal childhood development and obesity risk.

While many people would not think of obesity as some sort of inheritable disease, the new data shows that obese parents clearly have more obese children.  This is partly due to the poor health status of the mother during pregnancy (which then induces faulty metabolic gene settings) and the likely poor diet for the child during developmental years.  The epigenetic programming of the children of obese parents is a catastrophic public health problem.

Another interesting study shows that simply taking a comprehensive prenatal supplement² can promote optimal levels of growth hormone and leptin in a newly born child.  Low levels of growth hormone otherwise cause low-birth weight children as well as risk for premature delivery.  Low levels of leptin cause “hibernation” metabolism in the newly born child, making a child much more at risk for future weight gain even eating “normal” amounts of food.

With all the talk of health care in our country, along with its escalating costs, Americans have a personal responsibility to take charge of this issue – not only for their own well being but for a next generation of children being positioned to head in the wrong direction (through no real fault of their own).