Exercise can reverse negative effects of maternal obesity

Exercise is the key to overcoming the adverse metabolic effects passed on to offspring by their overweight mothers, a Sydney study has found. The research showed for the first time these effects can be almost completely reversed through physical activity.

Being an obese mother can have a powerful impact on the next generation, altering central appetite circuits and contributing to increased fat deposits, glucose intolerance and metabolic disease in offspring. But the study in rodents found exercise was able to dramatically improve these detrimental impacts, with the reversal most pronounced in juveniles who both exercised and consumed a low-fat diet.

Prof Margaret Morris, Sultana Rajia, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales

Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease
http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/exercise-can-reverse-negative-effects-maternal-obesity