A woman’s weight affects her grandchildren

A woman’s weight has an effect on her grandchildren, a medical conference on the struggle with obesity heard yesterday.

Researchers at University College Dublin, have established a “consistent and positive” connection between the maternal grandmother’s weight and that of their grandchild.

Findings of the Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study were presented at the winter scientific meeting at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in Dublin.

Dr Rebecca Somerville, from UCD’s school of public health, physiotherapy and population science, said they were able to link the maternal line with a child’s body weight.

Collected data on the height and weight of more than 500 children at age five pointed to similarities between the grandmothers.

The study has found that a tendency to being overweight or obese is a function of the genes.

Dr Somerville said that the maternal grandmother passed down genes to her own daughter when she was in her womb.

However, the study of just over 1,000 birth families is continuing, to see the extent of which familial patterns are genetic, purely environmental or a combination of both.

Between 2001 and 2002, a total of 1,082 mothers gave birth to 1,094 Lifeways children: 377 maternal grandmothers were clinically examined, with 585 children examined at age five and 298 at age 10. A subset of 76 children also gave blood samples.

Dr Somerville said a “significant correlation” was found between the grandmother’s waist circumference and that of her grandchild’s. The correlation remained even after an adjustment was made for the mother’s smoking, waist size, and the child’s gender.

Another speaker, Sarah Browne, a research post-graduate at DCU’s school of nursing and human sciences, found most schoolchildren were making bad food choices at lunchtime.

She managed to get over 300 secondary school students to complete food diaries in which they recorded the food and drink they consumed at lunchtime.

She found they mostly ate white bread, meat products, confectionery, high-calorie drinks and chips, either purchased at school or outside.

Ms Browne said all sources of lunch — home, school, fell short of what 15 to 17-year-olds should be eating. The students were getting little or no fruit, vegetables, dairy, and wholemeal breads from these sources.

She also found boys, more than girls, consumed foods that contained significantly more energy, fat, carbohydrate, starch, sugar and sodium, although those who ate at home did not eat as much confectionery.

Photographs taken by the students of the food they ate at school showed a lot of processed meat. One meal consisted of fried chicken balls, chips, and curry sauce and Ms Brown calculated that it contained 900 calories.

Ms Brown said there appeared to be a reluctance by the Department of Education to introduce mandatory school meal standards. School principals were trying to deal with the issue but were getting very little support. “It is very difficult for them to keep healthy food on the agenda,” she said.