High-Fat Diet During Pregnancy May Increase the Risk of Breast Cancer: Study

Regular consumption of a high-fat diet can pose a major health risk. It can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart trouble and many other chronic ailments. A new study, published online in the Journal Breast Cancer Research, reveals that having a high-fat diet during pregnancy may increase the risk of breast cancer over generations. 

According to senior author Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, professor of oncology at the Georgetown University, "It is believed that environmental and lifestyle factors play a critical role in increasing the risk of breast cancer, and so we use animal models to reveal the biological mechanisms responsible it in women and their female progeny,"

With the help of a mice model, researchers showed that a number of genetic changes in the first and third female generations of mice that were fed high-fat diets during pregnancy led to increased breast cancer risk, increased resistance to cancer treatment, poor cancer prognosis and impaired anti-cancer immunity.

For the study, they fed pregnant female mice a diet high in fat derived from common corn oil which resulted in genetic changes that substantially increased the susceptibility of breast cancer in three generations of female offspring. The amount of fat given to the experimental mice was matched with what a human might eat daily. But both the experimental mice and the control mice ate the same amount of calories and they weighed the same.

The experimental mice got 40 per cent of their energy from fat, and the control mice got a normal diet that provided 18 per cent of their energy from fat. A typical human diet now consists of at least 33 per cent fat, the researchers claim. 

"Studies have shown that pregnant women consume more fat than non-pregnant women, and the increase takes place between the first and second trimester. Of the 1.7 million new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in 2012, 90 per cent have no known causes. These facts and the results of our study, do give us some food for thought," concludes Professor Hilakivi-Clarke.

According to Consultant Nutritionist Dr. Rupali Datta, "An ideal weight gain for a mother-to-be is about 10-12 kilos. A healthy birth weight for a baby is 3 kilos. To achieve this, you do not need to eat for two people but additional requirements of the body have to be met." She suggests that the first trimester does not require any additional intake and so, a daily requirement of 1900 calories is adequate (for a sedentary woman). From the second trimester, an additional 350 calories are recommended to be consumed daily. This can be achieved with increased intake of nutrient dense foods like whole grains and millets and energy from natural oil sources like nuts and seeds. 

With inputs from IANS