ESPChildren and adolescents whose mothers follow five healthy habits -- eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, keeping a healthy body weight, drinking alcohol in moderation, and not smoking -- are 75% less likely to become obese when compared with children of mothers who did not follow any such habits, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
When both mother and child adhered to these habits, the risk of obesity was 82% lower compared with mother and children who did not.
The study was originally published online in BMJ on July 4, 2018.
"Our study was the first to demonstrate that an overall healthy lifestyle really outweighs any individual healthy lifestyle factors followed by mothers when it comes to lowering the risk of obesity in their children," said Qi Sun, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and senior author of the study.
One in five children in the U.S aged 6-19 have obesity, putting them at risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other metabolic conditions later in life. While it is known that genetics play a role in obesity, the rapid increase of the disease in recent years is likely due to changes in lifestyle and diet, indicating that "nurture" more than "nature" is fueling the current obesity epidemic.
For this study, researchers focused on the association between a mother's lifestyle and the risk of obesity among their children and adolescents between 9 and 18 years of age. They examined data from 24,289 children enrolled in the Growing Up Today Study who were born to 16,945 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study II.
Know more: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180704194402.htm
