If your father didn't have much meat or other protein on the table while he was growing up, you may be more likely to create and store fat, according to recent research.
While this could help you survive hunger, it also puts you at higher risk for some diseases.
Earlier research on an isolated community in Sweden, known as the Överkalix Cohort Study, found that poor nutrition during a paternal grandfather's teenage years increased his grandchild's risk of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. But since that study was using a real-world human population, there were too many social and economic variables to make any firm closes.
To focus on the effects of paternal diet alone, the researchers forbidden the diets of two groups of mice. The males in one were fed a normal diet. The second group of males received protein-poor food. The females of both groups ate a normal diet.
Lead researcher Oliver Rando and colleagues observed that offspring of male mice fed a low-protein diet showed a marked difference in the activity of genes responsible for fatty chemical formation. Lipid and cholesterol formation increased as compared to offspring of the control group fed the standard diet.
Inheriting an increased production of fats could serve to prepare offspring for tough times by increasing energy storage, but can also lead to health problems.
“It's consistent with the idea that when parents go hungry, it's best for offspring to hoard calories,” said Rando.
