You are what your mother ate

Pregnant or breastfeeding mothers who live on a diet of junk food could be condemning their children to lifelong obesity and ill-health, experts warned today.

fair enough.

A study suggests that a mother's poor diet can do long-lasting and irreversible damage to her child. The effects include obesity, raised levels of cholesterol, and the risk of diabetes.

I think we can call see that, although my mother ate shellfish of every possible kind and I cannot even write the words without feeling sick, let alone eat a winkle.

Dr Stephanie Bayol, one of the scientists from the Royal Veterinary College, London, said: "It seems that a mother's diet whilst pregnant and breastfeeding is very important for the long-term health of her child.

And a vet is commenting because...

...the research was conducted on rats...

But I'm not actually a rat...

The results fit in with observed patterns of children's weight reflecting that of their parents.

Genetics, anyone?

Dr Bayol and colleague Professor Neil Stickland studied the offspring of rats fed a diet of foods such doughnuts, muffins, biscuits, crisps and sweets during pregnancy and lactation.

Yummy.

Their progress was compared with that of young rats whose mothers were given a normal healthy diet.

Cheese? Rubbish from bins? Wiring?

Even when they were switched to a healthy diet, the rats continued to have health problems which lasted beyond adolescence.

I'm afraid that I am so jaded by the state we now live in that even if this was all true I just can't believe it in its entirety. I already am aware that funding for these projects is dependent on the results that come out and whether the people in the department believe in the same outcomes as the government of the day.

What this looks like to me is another one of those reports telling women that when they are pregnant they aren't supposed to do anything. Don't smoke, don't drink, don't eat fish or eggs or go 'wooo' on a Sunday.

And of course, the rest of us are also being told what we can and can't do. Today is the anniversary of the Hitler Memorial Day the Labour government started, called 'The Smoking Ban'. We are continually getting messages about how much exercise we should do, salt we should eat, fatty foods, why we shouldn't leave our houses except to work and raise money for the government so they can tell us how we should live the tiny part of our lives we have left.

Well, thanks. But I don't want my life to be so dull that at 35 I am living in some kind of atmospherically controlled bubble, knitting my own knickers, sipping on purified salt free water, eating lentils and organic vegetables and waiting for Alzheimer's to take its grip and spare me from the utter boredom which our betters seem to think we should aim for.