Display options Mobile website  Health News of Sunday, 26
January 2014  Source: BBC  Pregnant mother's fatty diet 'may
alter baby's brain'   The team at Yale School of Medicine, in
the US, showed diet could change the structure of mice brains.
They argue this could explain why the children of obese parents
are more likely to become grossly overweight.  Experts said the
study had merit, but brain changes in humans were unproven.
Obesity can run in families and shared eating habits are a major
factor.  However, there is evidence that diet during pregnancy
can also influence a child's future waistline, such as through
changes to DNA.  'Signal to the pup' The latest foray into the
field, published in the journal Cell, shows the structure of the
brain itself may be changed.  The experiments on mice showed
that mothers on a high-fat diet had pups with an altered
hypothalamus, a part of the brain important for regulating
metabolism.  These mouse pups were more likely to become
overweight and develop type 2 diabete