At 8 PM on the weekend of her daughter’s 17th birthday, Susan received a call no parent should ever have to receive. The voice on the phone informed her that her daughter was in the ER due to a cocaine overdose. Susan had heard of mothers doing drugs while pregnant, setting up their unborn children to substance abuse. But she’d never done any illegal drugs, nor had anyone else in her family. She had no idea what could have caused her daughter to take cocaine.
If you, too, are struggling with substance abuse in your family, a new study could have one surprising answer to this. A group of researchers led by Dr. Daria Peleg-Rabstein has identified an unlikely predictor of drug use: a mother’s diet during pregnancy. We hear the usual facts about pregnancy: eat vegetables, don’t smoke, and, as Susan had heard, don’t do drugs. This study , however, suggests something else: high-fat diet during pregnancy dramatically increase the chances that the baby will be prone to taking drugs and fatty foods.
The study’s result has far-reaching implications on the issues of drug addiction and obesity that plague today’s society - while it is not surprising that a maternal high-fat diet contributes to obesity, its connection to drug addiction is less intuitive. The higher preference for drug-seeking and enhanced effects of drugs combined increase risk of developing addiction. It is unfortunate that in recent times, highly-processed junk foods have become cheaper and more accessible than healthy produce, leaving many mothers, like Susan, with no choice but to turn to high-fat foods to feed both themselves and their future child. Better governmental support systems (such as food access) for pregnant women should be in place for the benefit of future generations.
Adapted from Adapted from “Enhanced sensitivity to drugs of abuse and palatable foods following maternal overnutrition” by Peleg-Raibstein, et.al.
Peleg-Raibstein, D., Sarker, G., Litwan, K., Krämer, S. D., Ametamey, S. M., Schibli, R., & Wolfrum, C. (2016). Enhanced sensitivity to drugs of abuse and palatable foods following maternal overnutrition. Translational Psychiatry, 6(10). doi:10.1038/tp.2016.176
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