Comments on: Do Low-Carb Diets During Pregnancy Lead to Fatter Kids?

By: Matt Harper

Matt Harper — Fri, 13 May 2011 11:40:06 +0000

I too have struggled with my weight all my life and I wonder if this could have been a factor!
My Mother was a model and hence-
naturally thin and concerned with her image.
I’d be very interested in any further research on this subject!

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sun, 01 May 2011 21:17:58 +0000

“Looking back at what the mothers ate, the researchers found that a link between a low-carbohydrate diet early in pregnancy and higher levels of RXRα methylation”.

Dana, it doesn’t seem like they targeted carbs. This is what they found.

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:02:52 +0000

I don’t think that Dana understands body fat. 17% is not high. A person with 10% body fat would be deathly sick. I find this study very interesting. I have struggled with my weight all my life. My sister is naturally thin. I have two sons. One is heavy. I had him at a time when I was fairly thin. The other is thin. I had him at a heavy point in my life. Any connection? I wonder.

By: Dana

Dana — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:25:27 +0000

Also, birth weight may not be as important in obesity as previously thought, but it is still a risk factor for diabetes, plus it is a hazard to the mother during childbirth. Low-carb being the most effective way to control blood sugar even in a gestational diabetic, telling pregnant women not to eat that way so their kids won’t get 4% fatter later is a disgrace.

By: Dana

Dana — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:22:10 +0000

I find it interesting that they specifically compared low-carb eating to everything else. Oh, so the traditional Inuit had fat kids? No, they didn’t. Can we please look at the effects of a diet of mostly industrial foods now, because that’s what many Western women eat, particularly in the UK and USA, with America being worse.

And, a four percent change in body fat? 17% is already kind of high, although maybe not for a grade school-aged child. If one’s body fat were at 10% and went up to 14% would we see all the hand-wringing?

There is a difference between starvation and low carbohydrates. Your fasting glucose is enough to sustain the cells and tissues that really need it (there aren’t many). Your body can thrive on fatty acids otherwise, and even ketones. Those people in WWII *starved*, had very little food at all.

And we don’t even know how the researchers defined “low-carb diet.” I’d be curious to know macronutrient ratios. It seems like every other time someone does research about “low-carb diets” it winds up being 30 percent carb or something like that. It seems they believe that anything under the 300g USDA recommendation is “low.” Who knows why.

By: TomToys

TomToys — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:28:37 +0000

I find this interesting. It does make some sense that at some level a mothers eating habits while pregnant could have some effect on what weight factors her child has a predisposition too.

By: speedwell

speedwell — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:22:59 +0000

wow, my mother was conceived in post war germany, to poor parents who scrounged together all their resources and came to Canada when she was 5. I alway assumed her weight problem was 100% poor self control. And I had to scoff at the gene-theory because I had fat grandparents on all sides, but I worked at my weight and was able to keep from getting fat. We keep learning more and more than it’s not the genes as the environement of the genes during and after gestation. It seems that human evolution has already worked out these details that if food is scarse then genes turn on in a new way to ensure the new individual can thrive. And most of us have gone from rags to riches in the past hundred years, DNA wise.