Proving once again that life is utterly unfair, it appears that your parents’ diet can leave a permanent mark on your genetics.
Researchers put male mice on a low-protein diet as soon as they were weaned. And it seems this dietary restriction got passed on. The mice’s offspring were born with a metabolism which made them better suited for a low-protein environment. Compared to a control mouse, hundreds of genes had changed in the offspring of the low-protein diet mice – most notably in genes that we think are connected to storing calories.
So hungry mice produce offspring that are more efficient at keeping fat. Does that mean overweight people might have kids more adept at losing it?
Research published in Cell
