Dec 1, 2010 11:11 GMT  ·  By
A pregnant mother's diet will influence not only what her baby will eat and drink later on, but also what flavors he/she will prefer
   A pregnant mother's diet will influence not only what her baby will eat and drink later on, but also what flavors he/she will prefer

A new study concluded that a pregnant mother's diet will influence not only what her baby will eat and drink later on, but also what flavors he/she will prefer, by changing the structure of the brain's olfactory glomeruli.

Josephine Todrank, PhD, who conducted the two-year study while a visiting scientist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine said that “this highlights the importance of eating a healthy diet and refraining from drinking alcohol during pregnancy and nursing.

“If the mother drinks alcohol, her child may be more attracted to alcohol because the developing fetus 'expects' that whatever comes from the mother must be safe.

“If she eats healthy food, the child will prefer healthy food.”

For the experiment, Todrank fed one group of pregnant and nursing mice a bland diet and another a flavored diet, and observed that at weaning age, the pups from mothers on the flavored diet had far larger glomeruli than those on the bland diet, and they also had a preference for the flavor their mother ate.

The researchers found that the sense of smell in pups was altered by what the mothers eat, just like they would train their pups to like the flavors that they do.

Todrank's team also found important changes in the structure of the brain's olfactory glomeruli – that processes smells, because the development of this system depends on the odors in the amniotic fluid.

Diego Restrepo, PhD, co-director of the Center for NeuroScience at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and sponsor of the study, said that “this is the first study to address the changes in the brain that occur upon steady exposure to flavors in utero and early in postnatal life when the newborn is receiving milk from the mother.

“During these periods the pup is exposed to flavors found in the food the mom is eating.”

Todrank explained that the “exposure to odor or flavor in the womb elicits the preference but also shapes the brain development.”

“From the fetus' point of view, whatever is in the womb is considered 'good'.

“If your mother ate it and survived to give birth to you then it was probably safe,” she said, and “this is a good strategy for a mouse that is foraging for food – it treats those same foods as safe.”

Because basically all mammals develop the same way, this experiment would probably have similar results in humans.

This research could have important public health implications, because “what an expectant mother chooses to eat and drink has long-term effects – for better or worse – on her child's sensory anatomy as well his or her odor memory and food preferences in the future,” said Todrank.

“It is not yet clear how long these changes and preferences last, but we are currently investigating that question.”

Diego Restrepo, who is also a professor of cell and developmental biology, said that “many diseases plaguing society involve excess consumption or avoidance of certain kinds of foods.

“Understanding the factors that determine choice and ingestion, particularly the early factors, is important in designing strategies to enhance the health of the infant, child, and adult.”

Todrank, whose work was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, is now a research fellow with collaborator Giora Heth, PhD, at the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa, Israel.

Her work was published Dec. 1, 2010 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.