Consuming a High-Fat Diet During Pregnancy May Make Your Child Depressed

A mother's diet plays an important role in the maintaining the health and development of the new-born. This is easy to understand as the foetus derives all his or her nutrition from the mother. Analysing this fact, a new study conducted by Oregon Health and Science University shows that mothers who follow a high-fat diet during pregnancy may increase the risk of anxiety disorders in their child. The crucial thing here is to know that these researchers are talking about the unhealthy fats or consuming more fat than what is required by the body which has been often blamed for obesity.

The study also shows that high-fat intake during pregnancy may lead to several other problems like the probability of developing mental health ailments during youth. The team conducted trials and experiments over a period of nine years using an animal model. For the study, a group of monkeys were fed a high-fat diet during pregnancy and it was seen that they produced offspring that were more anxious than those whose mothers ate a healthy diet during the same period. 

Scientists studied 65 female Japanese macaques at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton. They were divided into two groups: one that ate a high-fat diet during pregnancy and the other that followed a regular health diet. They produced 135 offspring, including both males and females. The young animals were assessed when they were 11 months of old and researchers found that both males and females born to mothers who belonged to the high-fat group had anxiety disorders.

There's more - the researchers also found out that these mood changes in the offspring persisted even when they were put on a healthy diet - indicating a long-term health impact of consuming a high-fat diet. This is the first study to indicate that anxious behaviour persisted over time.

The team believes that these findings are of great important given the rates of maternal obesity and high levels of fat consumption in most nations. According to the renowned Journal Lancet, "Estimates suggest that 20% of women will be obese by 2025-a sobering statistic, particularly considering that obesity during pregnancy increases risk of adverse health outcomes to both mother and child. Obesity during pregnancy increases the risk of life-long health problems in children, including obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease."

During the study, researchers noted a range of mental health disorders in children of obese mothers. In their experiments, it was seen that new-born monkeys of obese mothers suffered from brain defects and abnormities in the central serotonin system. Serotonin, which is also known as a mood-enhancing chemical, is a neurotransmitter that is believed to affect not only your mood but also your appetite, digestion, sleep and memory.

The findings suggest that the mother's diet during pregnancy can have a serious impact on behavioural disorders such as anxiety or depression in her child. However, more research and human trials are required to validate these results and the connection between high consumption of dietary fat and mental health problems. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.

Babies whose mothers consumed a high-fat diet during their pregnancy may be at an increased risk of developing mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, a study has warned. The findings, of an animal study, showed that an unhealthy diet not only creates health problems for expectant mothers, but also alters children’s’ development of the brain and endocrine system which may cause long-lasting mental health ramifications.

“Given the high level of dietary fat consumption and maternal obesity in developed nations, these findings have important implications for the mental health of future generations,” said Elinor Sullivan, assistant professor at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in the US.

Further, exposure to a high-fat diet during gestation and early in development impaired the development of neurons containing serotonin — a neurotransmitter that is critical in developing brains. On the other hand, introducing the child to a healthy diet at an early age also failed to reverse the effect, the researchers said.

“It’s not about blaming the mother,” but “about educating pregnant women about the potential risks of a high-fat diet in pregnancy and empowering them and their families to make healthy choices by providing support. We also need to craft public policies that promote healthy lifestyles and diets,” Sullivan noted. For the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology, the team tested the effect of a maternal high-fat diet on non-human primates, tightly controlling their diet in a way that would be impossible in a human population.

Researchers grouped a total of 65 female Japanese macaques into two groups, one given a high-fat diet and one a control diet during pregnancy. They subsequently measured and compared anxiety-like behaviour among 135 offspring and found that both males and females exposed to a high-fat diet during pregnancy exhibited greater incidence of anxiety compared with those in the control group.

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