Lowers Child’s Risk Of Obesity

Your mom is everything. And new research is showing that to be even more true than it already was. Mothers who practice a healthy lifestyle and follow healthy behaviors are less likely to pass bad habits onto their children. Specifically, mothers who are not obese are less likely to have children who are obese, or who will grow up to be obese as adults.

New research has found this link, but is less certain whether it’s a cause or symptom. The researchers are sure that the influence a mother has over her children’s formation of habits plays a role, but beyond that the study draws no conclusions as to whether the obesity is directly linked from mother to child.

The study looked at mothers and their children, tracking the children between the ages of nine and eighteen. Five risk factors were evaluated, including diet, body mass index, whether or not smoking is involved, level of alcohol intake, and also level of physical activity. While each risk factor played a role in lowering the child’s chance of being obese, when one or more of the factors was in a good range the researchers saw significant benefits for the children and their chances of having a normal body mass index. Children of mothers who had low risk in all five areas had a seventy-five percent reduced chance of becoming obese.

Mothers who are healthy, and maintain a healthy lifestyle, have children who are less obese 

Key Points:

• 1Lifestyle patterns of mothers may influence their children negatively or positively.
• 2Mothers who include daily exercise and eat healthy foods increase the likelihood that their children will practice a healthy lifestyle.
• 3Mothers with healthy lifestyle habits tended to have children who had less of a chance of being categorized as obese.

Children of mothers who had all five low-risk factors were 75 percent less likely to be obese than children of mothers who had none of the low-risk lifestyle factors.