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The study was coordinated by Daniela Sartorelli, a professor at the Ribeir\u00e3o Preto School of Medicine<\/a> at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n Researchers followed 43 sets of fathers, mothers, and newborns receiving care through the public healthcare system in Ribeir\u00e3o Preto, in the Brazilian state of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n The overlooked role of fathers<\/p>\n \u201cMaternal nutrition<\/a> and health before, during, and after the baby\u2019s birth have always received attention, but little is said about the role of the father\u2019s diet. Our study shows that it also matters a great deal for the baby\u2019s health,\u201d Sartorelli said.<\/p>\n This is the first study to demonstrate a direct association between how much ultra-processed food fathers eat and their newborns\u2019 body composition.<\/p>\n Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations made mostly from substances extracted from foods and synthetic chemical additives. They contain few, if any, whole-food ingredients.<\/p>\n The link starts before conception<\/p>\n The researchers\u2019 working hypothesis centers on sperm formation, which happens well before conception ever occurs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Study co-author Mariana Rinaldi Carvalho is a PhD student at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDiets rich in ultra-processed foods can create a pro-inflammatory environment in the body, affecting sperm quality<\/a> and altering the expression of genes that will be passed on to the baby. This process is known as epigenetics,\u201d said Rinaldi Carvalho.<\/p>\n \u201cGene activity can be \u2018activated\u2019 or \u2018deactivated\u2019 depending on the father\u2019s dietary habits.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n One gene the researchers point to specifically is IGF-II, responsible for fetal growth and inherited exclusively from the father.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPrevious studies have shown that a father\u2019s dietary habits can biochemically modify this gene in sperm through a process called methylation [the addition of a methyl group], thereby influencing fetal development,\u201d Carvalho said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Differences between mothers and fathers<\/p>\n The results revealed a striking contrast between mothers and fathers.<\/p>\n Fathers who ate more ultra-processed foods tended to have babies with higher birth weights. Mothers who ate the same foods, however, tended to have babies with lower birth weights.<\/p>\n The effect appeared early in pregnancy. Mothers who consumed more ultra-processed foods during the first 16 weeks were more likely to have babies with lower birth weights, shorter lengths, and smaller head circumferences at birth.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that the impact of maternal consumption of ultra-processed foods on the baby\u2019s birth weight<\/a> and body measurements may be related to placental development, which depends on many nutrients. Ultra-processed foods are, in fact, nutrient-poor,\u201d said Carvalho.<\/p>\n That distinction may help explain why the same category of food produced opposite effects depending on which parent consumed it.<\/p>\n One effect likely stemmed from nutrient deficiency during pregnancy<\/a>, while the other appeared to originate earlier in the father\u2019s sperm.<\/p>\n Why birth weight matters<\/p>\n A baby\u2019s birth weight ranks among the most important predictors of health across both childhood and adulthood.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond increasing the risk of death, both low and high birth weights increase the likelihood of developing noncommunicable diseases later in life.<\/p>\n These include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes<\/a>, and certain cancers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe study didn\u2019t find an increase in total body fat. Instead, it found greater fat accumulation in specific regions of the baby\u2019s body,\u201d said Sartorelli. \u201cThe results suggest that the quality of the father\u2019s diet may also influence fetal development.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultra-processed foods accounted for an average of 30 percent of the total energy consumed by the fathers whose diets were analyzed in the study. Processed meats, sugary drinks, and cookies were the biggest contributors.<\/p>\n Weight isn\u2019t the whole story<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Sartorelli\u2019s team has traced paternal factors to newborn outcomes. In earlier research, the same group found that overweight fathers tended to have babies with lower birth weights.\u00a0<\/p>\n This new study adds an important layer to that finding by isolating diet quality<\/a> specifically, showing that a father\u2019s weight alone doesn\u2019t tell the whole story.<\/p>\n \u201cWith these two studies, we\u2019ve shown that it isn\u2019t just a matter of whether the father is overweight. The quality of the father\u2019s diet before conception has a significant impact on the baby\u2019s health,\u201d Sartorelli said.<\/p>\n Small study with broader implications<\/p>\n The researchers are upfront about the study\u2019s limitations, with only 43 families included in the analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even so, they consider it a pioneering effort to investigate how ultra-processed food consumption affects both paternal and neonatal health.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe results pave the way for larger studies and reinforce the need to include men, not just women, in family planning guidance,\u201d said Sartorelli.<\/p>\n The study is published in the journal Nutrition Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014-<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A father\u2019s diet doesn\u2019t just affect his own health. It may shape his child\u2019s body composition before the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,85,46,543],"class_list":["post-567028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}