C Byrne BB/D006133/1

If a pregnant woman eats a healthy diet the developing baby would be expected to develop normally in most pregnancies. We suggest that providing the developing baby, child and then adult continues to eat a healthy diet throughout life, the risk of adult diabetes and heart disease will be low. We reason that in the womb the healthy diet allows the baby to develop a normal metabolism and that this baby's metabolism is primed to cope with a healthy diet also in childhood and adulthood. The risk of this person developing adult diabetes and heart disease later in life is very, very low. However if the baby is not brought up after birth and throughout childhood to eat a healthy diet, but eats instead a diet rich in fat, the baby's metabolism is now not able to cope with this diet, because in the womb it had never been exposed to these foods. We reason that this occurs because during development in the womb the baby was never exposed to unhealthy foods and therefore its metabolism did not develop to cope. When this child eats these unhealthy foods in childhood and then in adulthood because its metabolism has not developed to cope there is a marked increase in that person developing adult diabetes and heart disease. Therefore it is very important to study the effect of the combination of the pre-natal and the post-natal diets. We argue that where there is imbalance, or large differences, between these diets the effects on the offspring can be severe and risk of adult disease and heart disease later in life increases considerably. Only by choosing an animal model is it possible to study this phenomenon, because it is necessary to change both the pre- and post natal diets and it would be unethical to undertake these changes in pregnant mothers and their babies. It is our intention of undertaking this study using a rodent model. Joint with BB/D522246/1