Ultra-Processed Food Intake by Moms Linked With Childhood Obesity
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A mother's consumption of ultra-processed foods appears to be related to an increased risk of overweight or obesity in her children, according to new research. Among the 19,958 mother–child pairs studied, 12.4% of children developed obesity or overweight in the full analytic study group, and the offspring of those mothers who ate the most ultra-processed foods had a 26% higher risk of obesity/overweight (12.1 servings/day) compared with those with the lowest consumption (3.4 servings/day), report Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues.