'You Are What You Eat' And So is Your Baby

A recent study shows that what a mother eats before her pregnancy starts could influence the health of her child. According to researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Tex., they discovered that certain diets could even influence the child's DNA.

The study was based on the diets of women living in rural parts of Western Africa--an area that often experiences drastic seasonal changes. This means women's diets will also see many changes throughout the year. For instance, during the rainy season, people may eat more leafy green vegetables, which contain a lot of folate--an essential nutrient that can help prevent birth defects. However, other yearly staples that remain constant include millet, peanuts, rice and cassava.

"The rainy season is often referred to as 'the hungry season,' and the dry season 'the harvest season,'" said study author Robert Waterland, a nutritional epigeneticist at the college. "During the rainy season, villagers have a lot more farming labor to do, and they gradually run out of food collected from the previous harvest."

Researchers tested the concentration of nutrients from 84 women who became pregnant during the rainy season and 83 women who conceived ruing the dry season. The team then analyzed six specific genes in the DNA of the women's infants when they were 2 to 8-months-old.

Findings showed that infants conceived at the height of the rainy season had higher levels of methylation in all of their genes compared to those conceived during the dry season. This process can stop gene expression depending on nutrients found in the body.

"Our results represent the first demonstration in humans that a mother's nutritional well-being at the time of conception can change how her child's genes will be interpreted, with a lifelong impact," said senior study author Branwen Hennig, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a statement, via FOX News.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Nature Communications.