High Protein, Low-Carb Diet
During Pregnancy Improved Triglycerides, Fat Metabolism In Offspring
Diet found
especially beneficial for female offspring
Bethesda, Md. – November 22, 2004 – It has been
estimated that up to 32 million Americans have adopted the low-carb style of
eating, in part because of its quick and dramatic results. Converts often
maintain components of low-carb eating long after they’ve officially
finished dieting.
Not surprisingly, a growing number of pregnant women
now explore ways to continue low-carb routines through gestation, in fact
there are several chat rooms devoted to this topic. Though low-carbing
during pregnancy has not been extensively researched, a new study points to
some positive benefits for the adult offspring of low-carb dieters.
A team of U.K. scientists at the University of
Southampton School of Medicine have found that female pups born to mice who
were fed a diet high in unsaturated fat and protein, and low in
carbohydrates (low-carb/high-fat) during pregnancy and lactation were likely
to have lower liver triglyceride levels in adulthood than pups born
to mice on the standard chow diet (high-carb/low-fat). The female low-carb/high-fat
offspring also had higher amounts of proteins that aid fatty acid oxidation
(fat burning) than did the standard diet pups. A similar trend was noted in
the male low-carb/high-fat offspring, but the results were not as dramatic.
In humans, maintenance of low triglyceride levels and a
good lipid (fat) metabolism is important as these factors can reduce the
risk of developing coronary artery disease, a condition that affects
millions and kills thousands of Americans each year.
Research highlights:
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Mother mice were assigned either low-carb/high-fat or
standard high-carb/low-fat diets approximately six weeks before
impregnation. They remained on these diets through pregnancy and
nursing.
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The low-carb/high-fat mother mice ate approximately
21 percent less than the high-carb/low-fat mother mice did. The low-carb/high-fat
mother mice consumed 57.5 percent fewer carbs, 153 percent more fat and 23
percent more protein than the mice on the standard diet.
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The mothers on the low-carb/high-fat diet did not
display differences in body weight in comparison to the standard diet
mice.
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All pups were weaned from breast milk onto the same
standard high-carb diet into adulthood.
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Importantly, the adult offspring of low-carb/high-fat
mothers had reduced liver triglyceride concentration (less than half that
of the pups born to mothers on the standard diet), despite being fed the
same standard high-carb/low-fat diet post weaning. They also expressed
significantly greater levels of the hepatic proteins CD36, CPT-1 and PPARα,
which help with fatty acid oxidation.
The results of the study “A high unsaturated fat, high
protein and low carbohydrate diet during pregnancy and lactation modulates
hepatic lipid metabolism in female adult offspring” will appear as one of 20
research studies on fetal programming (how a mother’s actions affect her
offspring) presented in the January 2005 edition of the American Journal
of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology.
The authors of the study are Junlong Zhang, Chunli
Wang, and Christopher D. Byrne of the Endocrinology and Metabolism at the
University of Southampton School of Medicine; and Paul L. Terroni, Felino R.
A. Cagampang, and Mark Hanson of the Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Physiology
Sub-Division at the University of Southampton’s Princess Anne Hospital. All
authors are in the University of Southampton’s Developmental Origins of
Health and Disease Division (DOHaD). This work was supported by the Wellcome
Trust, the British Heart Foundation, the DOHaD Center and the School of
Medicine of the University of Southampton.
Abstract:
Whether a high unsaturated fat, high protein (HFP) and
low carbohydrate (CHO) diet during gestation has long-lasting beneficial
effects on lipid metabolism in the offspring was investigated using a mouse
model. Female mice were fed either a standard (CHO-rich) chow diet or a low
carbohydrate HFP diet, prior to and during gestation and lactation. All
offspring were weaned onto the same chow until adulthood. Although liver
cholesterol concentration and fasting plasma TG, cholesterol and free fatty
acid concentrations were not affected in either male or female HFP
offspring, hepatic triglyceride (TG) concentration was reduced by ~51% (p <
0.05) in the female adult offspring from dams on the HFP diet, compared to
females from dams on the chow diet (a trend toward reduced TG concentration
was also observed in the male). Furthermore, hepatic protein levels for
CD36, carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1) and peroxisomal proliferator
activated receptor-α (PPARα) were increased by ~ 46% (p < 0.001), ~52% (p <
0.001) and ~14% (p = 0.035) respectively in the female HFP offspring. Liver
TG levels were negatively correlated with protein levels of CD 36 (r =
-0.69, p = 0.007), CTP-1 (r = -0.55, p = 0.033) and PPARα (r = -0.57, p =
0.025) in these offspring. In conclusion, a maternal HFP diet during
gestation and lactation reduces hepatic TG concentration in female
offspring, which is linked with increased protein levels in fatty acid
oxidation.
Source:
The article “A high unsaturated fat, high protein and low
carbohydrate diet during pregnancy and lactation modulates hepatic lipid
metabolism in female adult offspring” is online
in the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative
and Comparative Physiology, and is
scheduled to appear in the January 2005 issue, published by the American
Physiological Society. A copy of the abstract is available to the
public at
www.the-aps.org.
Editors’ note:
A copy of the research paper by Zhang, et al is available to the media.
Members of the media are encouraged to obtain an electronic version and to
interview members of the research team. To do so, please contact Stacy
Brooks in the APS Communications Office (301-634-7253 or
sbrooks@the-aps.org).
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