clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk   

Obesity 'programmed before birth'

Pregnant woman

Eating a high-fat diet in pregnancy may cause changes in the foetal brain that lead to over-eating and obesity early in life, research suggests.

The Rockefeller University team say the finding may help explain why obesity rates have soared in recent years.

exposure to triglycerides from the mother's diet has the same effect on the developing foetal brain - and that the effect then lasts throughout the offspring's life.