This habit during pregnancy is more likely to make your kids obese as adults

Struggling with excess weight? Blame mom.

Over one billion people worldwide are living with obesity, defined as having a BMI of 30 or higher.

The World Health Organization officially declared obesity a global epidemic in 1997, noting that rates had nearly tripled since 1975 — which is when experts believe the epidemic began.

What has remained a hotly debated mystery is why, with most pointing the finger at lifestyle factors such as changes in diet and more sedentary behavior. But a new study published today says that’s not all.

University of Edinburgh researchers analyzed the data of over 17,000 people born in the same week in March 1958, paying particular attention to what their weight was at the ages of 16 and 42 — a range that covers the uptick in obesity in the UK.

What they found was that mothers who smoked — or were obese themselves — were much more likely to have children who were obese at those ages.

These findings suggest that factors present early in life can have long-lasting effects on a person’s weight — implying individual behaviors alone didn’t drive the obesity epidemic.

“Our research shows that the effect of maternal influences persists through to age 42 and that strikingly, those predictors were just as powerful (and prevalent) in the era before the current obesity pandemic began,” the authors wrote.

They added that more studies are needed to examine how community and societal factors can influence obesity — and how that may be a way in to preventing obesity in the future.

“Our results suggest that sociodemographic and early-life risk factors could be used to target obesity prevention programs for children and adults,” they said.

This study aligns with previous research that shows maternal behavior is a strong predictor of childhood obesity.

A 2019 study found that children of mothers who were obese while pregnant had a 264% increased likelihood of developing obesity themselves.

And a 2014 study indicates a link between maternal smoking — more so than paternal smoking — and childhood obesity risk.

Research suggests that a mother’s health and lifestyle choices — such as poor nutrition during pregnancy, gestational diabetes, formula feeding, early introduction of solid foods, a sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep patterns, and high stress levels — can significantly increase her child’s risk of obesity.