The amazing significance of what a mother eats

[wendy]

New research reveals the extraordinary impact that your mother's diet at the time of your conception has on the rest of your life, writes Michael Mosley.

A couple of months ago I found myself in a small village in Keneba, in The Gambia, chatting to a perky 90-year-old, Karamo Touray, surrounded by his many children and grandchildren. Apart from a sore toe, he said he was in good shape and he attributed the fact he had enjoyed such a long and healthy life to the will of Allah.

I suspect that the time of year when he was conceived may also have played a role.

A team from Britain's Medical Research Council, which has been collecting data on births, marriages and deaths in Keneba since the 1940s, discovered some years ago that in this part of The Gambia when you are conceived makes a huge difference to your chances of dying prematurely.

If you are conceived in, say, January and born in September then, as an adult, you are seven times more likely to die in any given year than someone conceived in September and born in June.

So the effect is big, very big.


Now the reason this happens has nothing to do with astrology and an awful lot to do with the weather, and therefore, what your parents were eating at the time you were conceived. The Gambia has an unusual and very stable weather pattern. July till November is known as the wet season because it rains almost all the time. The other months are largely dry.

During the dry season people have plenty of couscous and rice to eat, and these grains form the major part of their diet. During the rainy season there are less calories around (these are known as the Hungry Months) but, thanks to the rain, there are a lot more leafy green vegetables to eat.

And it turns out, certainly in The Gambia, that the amount of leafy green vegetables your mother (and possibly your father) are eating around the time of your conception can have a big impact on the rest of your life.

What really surprised me is not only that the effects are so profound but that they don't kick in for many years. Up till the age of 15 there's no discernible difference between the children. After that, however, the differences, as I described earlier, become striking, even shocking.

So, what's going on?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34222452

[annie]

Interesting concept