Did you know we have an epidemic of obese 6 month olds?
It’s true.
Obviously, infants are unable to make decisions for themselves.
Infants drink formula or breast milk when they’re hungry and none of them exercise (duh), yet many of them are becoming obese.
There goes the theory of greed and laziness as the cause of obesity.
Obese Moms Give Birth to Obese Babies
In the video below, Dr. Robert H. Lustig, Dr. Elissa S. Epel and Dr. Barbara A. Laraia explain how obesity can start in the womb.
Infants that are obese at 6 months of age are much more likely to become obese adults, leading to all the health problems we associate with obesity.
A few points from the video:
- In the years 2009-2010, mean life span went down for the first time in modern history.
- Babies lay down their fat before they’re born. This is determined by the baby’s insulin levels, which is determined by the mother’s diet.
- Mothers’ weight gain during pregnancy has been going up in the last 25 years.
- Excessive weight during pregnancy can cause problems such as gestational diabetes and put the fetus at risk.
- The physical state of the mother can directly determine the future health of the baby, both as a child and as an adult.
- We need to focus on prevention, which has to begin in young women, even before conception.
The video is 7 minutes long:
This is thought provoking. Children are metabolically “programmed” while they are still in the womb. Fixing a woman’s diet before and while she is pregnant is the only way to prevent this from happening.
The only realistic way to fix the problem in a short period of time is with a public health intervention.
Oh, my, goodness, can we not start categorizing infants as obese? We have a Serious problem with weight in this society, and the labeling effect will not do any good.
We already have mothers who are told to restrict calories when they are pregnant, who are not getting the vitamins and minerals and FATS that they and their growing baby need. An emphasis on Fat Babies will lead to many more problems.
There are several infants that are being starved of good fats because their parents are afraid of fat. As long as we are looking at weight, that will not change.
Interesting.
Worrying.
But hardly surprising…
Obesity is a disease, after all…
Mark
P.S.
Then there’s the issue of deficiencies: if the mother loads up on carnitine ad omega 3′s, that translates right to the baby. Hand Eye Coordination was way better in infants whose mothers were ingesting omega 3′s during pregnancy…