We all know that eating junk food and other processed foods are not healthy for you. They are high in fat and sugars, and can lead to heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and even stroke. But it turns out, that eating junk food can be worst for pregnant mothers. They have the chance to not just hurt themselves but actually cause harm to their child’s health.
A preference for fatty foods
Junk foods begets more junk food. This is absolutely the case when the mother consumes junk food while she is pregnant. That craving is passed onto the child. A study on rates in 2017, showed that there is a relationship between the mother’s diet and the weight of her pups. Rodent mothers who were fed junk food during pregnancy had pups that preferred to consume fat right after weaning. The junk food altered the pups’ circuitry. This rewiring lasted into adulthood.
An increased risk for allergies
The sugar from junk food can cause major problems on the mother’s auxiliary systems, and the baby’s too. One of the specific things is that it can lead to major allergies that last into adulthood. A study in the European Respiratory Journal, showed that pregnant mothers who consumed excess amounts of “free sugars”, experienced a 38% increase in their child’s allergy risks. They also saw an increase in allergic induced asthma.
An increased risk for heart disease
It is probably not a surprise that eating junk food can cause your child to have an increased risk of heart disease. But that is in fact the case. Eating a diet high in fat and sugar can pass on genetic abnormalities to your children and increase their risk for Type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
