Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Men with high-fat diets are more likely to have diabetic children, research showed Thursday, in the first study linking a baby's health to what their father ate.
The study tracked a group of rats that were fed fatty foods until they were obese and showing precursory signs of type 2 diabetes and were then bred with females of average weight, explained lead researcher Margaret Morris.
Morris said that despite being reared on a strictly healthy diet, their offspring developed impaired glucose tolerance and insulin production when they reached young adulthood.
"If what we seeing here in a rat translates to a human it may well explain the emerging earlier rates of diabetes in younger and younger people," said Morris, from the University of New South Wales.
Rather than passing their ill health onto their children genetically Morris said the metabolic issues appeared to have come from damage done to the rats' sperm by their diet. It was the first study to uncover such a link, she added.
"We've known for a while that overweight mums are more likely to have chubby babies, and that a woman's weight before and during pregnancy can play a role in future disease in her children," she said.
"But until now, the impact of the father's environment - in terms of diet - on his offspring had not been investigated."
Morris said the message of the research, published in the latest edition of Nature, was that "blokes as well as women need to eat healthier, reduce smoking and reduce alcohol excess" before having children.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments