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Fathers with unhealthy diet put daughters at risk of deadly disease, warns study
If youre a man and planning for a kid, the alarming results of the recent study should prompt you to adopt a healthy lifestyle, especially a nutritious diet.
We are what we eat. However, a mans diet can significantly impact his daughters health by increasing the risk of a serious illness. Its not enough if you exercise plenty, because an unhealthy diet, including sugary drinks, can overpower the benefits of an active lifestyle. �
Fathers unhealthy diet impacts daughters health
The pressure of eating healthy and staying active is profound among women while considering pregnancy, but a study led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside draws attention to a mans unhealthy diet and its impact on his child.
The studys lead author Changcheng Zhou, a professor of biomedical sciences in the�School of Medicine�was able to establish through an experiment conducted on mice that factors men are exposed to, including unhealthy diet, environmental toxicants, and stress, can alter the RNA in sperm to mediate intergenerational inheritance.
This means that men with a preference for fatty foods high in cholesterol aremore likely to increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases in their daughters. The study doesnt establish the link between the fathers diet and the sons health.
Men who eat unhealthy foods while planning a family can increase the risk of a chronic inflammatory disease�called atherosclerosis in their offspring, which is the leading cause of illnesses related to the heart.
Men who plan to have children should consider eating a healthy, low-cholesterol diet and reducing their own CVD risk factors, said Changcheng.
The dangers of fatty foods
Consuming a diet high in fat and cholesterol is a major cause of atherosclerosis, which occurs when plaque made of sticky substances in the blood builds up in the walls of the arteries, reducing blood flow to vital organs.
The researchers noticed changes in the RNA molecules in the sperm of mice fed a high-cholesterol diet, which can affect the gene expression in mouse embryonic stem cells.
Ribonucleic acid, or RNA, is present in all living cells. Bearing structural similarities to DNA, this nucleic acid is essential for most biological functions in living organisms and viruses, the study explains.
Highlighting the dangers of an unhealthy diet on the heart, the lead author said: These factors appear to affect their sperm in influencing the health of their female offspring. Our study suggests the sperm passes this information to the next generation. �
However, it isnt clear why only female offspring are affected by their fathers diet an observation made in the mice experiment.
