{"id":48805,"date":"2025-08-06T05:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48805\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T05:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:55:08","slug":"obesity-can-be-passed-from-parents-to-children-but-do-mothers-or-fathers-genes-matter-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48805\/","title":{"rendered":"Obesity can be passed from parents to children. But do mothers\u2019 or fathers\u2019 genes matter more?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Published on
\n 06\/08\/2025 – 6:00 GMT+2\n <\/p>\n

\"\"
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Children with obese parents are more likely to be obese themselves \u2013 but their mothers\u2019 genes appear to be particularly important in determining their weight, a new study has found.<\/p>\n

Obesity is thought to be caused by a combination of hereditary and environmental factors. Genes passed from parents to children affect people\u2019s appetite, sense of fullness, metabolism, food cravings, body fat distribution, and more.<\/p>\n

The study, published in the journal PLOS Genetics<\/a>, indicates that while children get half of their DNA from each parent, it\u2019s the mother\u2019s genetics that matter more when it comes to body mass index (BMI).<\/p>\n

\u201cMothers\u2019 genetics appear to play an important role in influencing her child\u2019s weight over and above the child\u2019s genetics,\u201d Liam Wright, the study\u2019s lead author and a researcher at University College London, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Wright\u2019s team analysed genetic and health data from more than 2,600 UK families with children born in 2001 and 2002, tracking them from birth to age 17.<\/p>\n

Having access to both the childrens\u2019 and parents\u2019 genes was key. It enabled researchers to identify both the genes that kids had inherited as well as the genes that parents did not pass down \u2013 but that might still influence their children\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

Those indirect effects, called \u201cgenetic nurture,\u201d matter because they help shape how children grow up, from conditions in the womb to parenting practices, the study authors said.<\/p>\n

Both parents\u2019 BMI matter when it comes to a child\u2019s weight, the study found. But while the fathers\u2019 influence was almost entirely related to genes he had directly passed down, the impact of the mother\u2019s BMI went further.<\/p>\n

That could be because a mother\u2019s genes influence her own weight, eating habits, or activities during pregnancy, in turn playing a role in her child\u2019s development and health, the researchers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to the genes mums directly pass on, our findings suggest that maternal genetics are instrumental in shaping the environment in which the child develops, therefore indirectly influencing the child\u2019s BMI too,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about blaming mothers, rather, supporting families to make a meaningful difference to children\u2019s long-term health,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Other research<\/a> has shown that fathers who were overweight or obese at the time of conception are more likely to have children with obesity.<\/p>\n

Efforts to help obese parents lose weight could have long-lasting health effects for their children, according to the study authors.<\/p>\n

\u201cTargeted interventions to reduce maternal BMI, particularly during pregnancy, could reduce the intergenerational impacts of obesity,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 06\/08\/2025 – 6:00 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT Children with obese parents are more likely to be obese themselves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[49,48,316,84,33491,13125,1229,33490,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-48805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-genetics","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-human-genes","13":"tag-medical-research","14":"tag-obesity","15":"tag-overweight","16":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}