How mom and dad’s BMI affects children

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently funded an analysis that concluded that around 75% of all Americans are currently overweight or obese. In 2021, more than 15 million children, young adolescents and 172 million adults were overweight or obese. This represents an increasingly intergenerational challenge in public health. Parental obesity is one of the most powerful predictors Childhood obesity. Many epidemiological studies have investigated the intergenerational impact and found that children of obese or overweight parents are at a much higher risk of becoming obese. Recent studies have investigated potential reasons, such as genetic or environmental factors for the generational transmission of obesity.

The brain plays an important role. Many obesity-related genes are expressed there, affecting how the brain responds to food cues. A recent study used MRI scans to monitor which brain regions were recruited during the food cue task. In this study, we investigated the method. neural Responses to food cues differ between children with overweight/obese parents compared to children with normal weight parents. The role of both maternal and father BMI in how children’s brains respond to food cues has never been investigated

The current study examined the relationship between father and mother BMI; Pregnant Similar to current BMI, and responsiveness to food cues in children. All the children were healthy at the time of the test and were between 7 and 11 years old. My parents had a wide range of BMIs. This study found that children of obese mothers rather than obese fathers are more likely to be unable to self-regulate how much food they consume.

The greatest changes in the brain of children with obese mothers occurred in two regions: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. Activities within these two areas were significantly lower after the consumption of delicious sweets in children with mothers with current high BMI. These changes are important as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex play an important role in the diet. Self-regulation. These brain regions are responsible for dietary control. They provide the ability to control your meals when you are given delicious, attractive food. If these brain regions are not functioning properly, it can be very difficult to control food cravings. Impaired functional dysfunction in these brain regions is likely underlying the reasons why children of obese mothers become obese themselves.

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Healthy lean participants reported increased cravings and consumption of snack foods when dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was functionally disrupted by continuous electronoise stimuli. Apparently, normal activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is necessary to inhibit the cravings for delicious, unhealthy foods.

Overall, these results suggest that defects in self-regulated brain circuits may be one of the potential mechanisms explaining the intergenerational effects of obesity. Genetics The intrauterine environment also plays a strong role in familial infections of obesity. However, even if the child grows up in another family, they still show a tendency to be obese.

These results have important clinical implications and suggest that intervention programs targeting maternal current BMI and child inhibitory control may be fruitful in preventing and interventing childhood obesity.