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\nNow, a\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Maryland has provided yet another reason to drive past your favorite drive thru window: the deleterious effects of a poor diet can leave a mark on the DNA, passing along the genes to your offspring.<\/p>\n
The harmful effects of an unhealthy diet can\u00a0\u201cactually stretch across generations,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0wrote Ian Myles, author of the study, which appeared in Nutrition Journal.<\/p>\n Myles demonstrated that a mother\u2019s eating habits\u00a0\u201cmay potentially shape her child\u2019s flavor preferences even before birth, potentially skewing their palette towards anything from vegetables to sugary sweets.\u201d<\/em>Passing along the proverbial sweet tooth could contribute to a child\u2019s propensity to become obese at some point in his or her life.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the mother\u2019s diet causes a harmful imbalance of her bacteria, she passes this imbalance on to her child and thus fails to present the ideal commensals for a proper immune education during her child\u2019s most critical developmental window,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0according to the study.<\/p>\n This developmental imbalance leaves the baby\u2019s immune system\u00a0\u201cpoorly trained to fight off infections and encourages autoimmune and allergic diseases.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Myles cautioned that the father\u2019s dietary choices in life also play an important role in the health of offspring.<\/p>\n The paternal DNA\u00a0\u201ccan also be inherited by the offspring and could alter early development of the immune system [52],\u201d<\/em>\u00a0according to the study.\u00a0\u201cEpigenetic changes in DNA are, in effect, cellular memory; these changes prevent dividing pancreas cells from becoming cells of the kidney or any other organ.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Myles concludes that only a radical change of lifestyle will stop the transfer of stained DNA to future generations of babies. He also warned on the apparent uselessness of commercial extracts as a means of countering a poor diet.<\/p>\n \u201cThe benefits of dietary modification over supplementation is furthered by evidence showing that dietary supplementation does not increase longevity, indicating that\u2026commercial interventions such as tea or berry extracts are unlikely to counteract poor dietary habits,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he advised.<\/p>\n Myles advised that people should eliminate sugar and fat in processed form from their diets and move to fresh sources of protein \u2014 and fat \u2014 such as fish and meat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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