LIFESTYLE-HEALTH STUDY: According to a new study conducted in New York, it says regardless of other lifestyle risk factors, a mother's consumption of ultra-processed meals appears to be connected to an elevated risk of overweight or obesity in her offspring.

The study, which was published in The BMJ, found that compared to the group with the lowest consumption (3.4 servings/day), there was a 26 percent increased risk in the group with the highest intake (12.1 servings/day) of ultra-processed foods by mothers.

Researchers, including Yiqing Wang from Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, stated that "mothers might benefit from limiting their intake of ultra-processed foods, and that dietary guidelines should be revised and financial and social barriers removed to improve nutrition for women of childbearing age and reduce childhood obesity."
Adult weight gain is frequently linked to ultra-processed foods such packaged baked goods and snacks, fizzy beverages, and sugary cereals.

Data from the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II) and Growing Up Today Study (GUTS I and II) in the US were used for the study, which included information on 19,958 children born to 14,553 mothers (45 percent males, aged 7–17 years at study enrolment).

The NHS II is an ongoing study that monitors the lifestyles and health of 116,429 US female nurses who were registered between the ages of 25 and 42 in 1989. Every four years starting in 1991, participants filled out validated food frequency questionnaires to record what they ate and drank.

16,882 children (aged 8 to 15) of NHS II participants participated in the GUTS I study, which started in 1996. From 1997 to 2001, they were followed up with annually, and then every two years, after that.

10,918 children (between the ages of 7 and 17) of NHS II participants joined the extended GUTS II trial in 2004, and were then followed up within 2006, 2008, and 2011 as well as every two years after that.

Over the course of an average follow-up of 4 years, 2471 (12 percent) children became overweight or obese.
A seperate analysis of 2,790 moms and 2,925 kids who had diet data from three months before conception to delivery (peri-pregnancy) revealed that consumption of ultra-processed foods during this time was not substantially linked to an elevated risk of overweight or obesity in the kids.

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