Obese mothers may share the risk of the disease with their daughters but not with their sons, finds an exciting study on the widespread obesity disease, which affects 20 percent of children in the United States.
A new study revealed that girls who are born to obese mothers or have large amounts of body fat may be more likely to gain excess body fat.
Researcher Rebecca Moon, from the University of Southampton’s Center for Epidemiology, said: “More studies are needed to understand why this is happening, but our findings suggest that approaches to managing body weight and body composition should start very early in life, particularly in young adults. Girls born to obese and overweight mothers.
The researchers measured body fat and muscle mass in 240 children, 9 years of age or younger, and their parents, in early childhood.
The researchers used this data to determine whether the child’s body mass index and the amount of body fat and muscle were related to that of the parents.
They found that the girls had a similar BMI and fat mass as their mothers, suggesting that girls born to obese or high-fat mothers are at higher risk of becoming obese or overweight.