The Child Is Father of the Man: Fetal Programming on Obesity

Article Summary
Lead: Elizabeth Lee
Co-lead: Sarah Kressin

The Child Is Father of the Man: Fetal Programming on Obesity

The issue of obesity is a reality as we teach it today to seventh graders in Life Science
classes. Its an amazing subject as discussions arise about what factors are the causes of the
epidemic we are seeing not only in just America but other countries as well. To even imagine that
the process of obesity may start in the mothers womb is irrational for some to grasp. It is
becoming more evident as we look at the development of the embryo within the mothers womb
that the maternal glucose and other factors may play more of an important role on obesity than
we originally thought. In fact according to Heerwagen (2010), fetal exposure to excess blood
lipids, particularly saturated fatty acids, can activate proinflammatory pathways, which could
impact substrate metabolism and mitochondrial function, as well as stem cell fate, all of which
affect organ development and the response to the postnatal environment (p. R711). Thus, with
all these new findings about prenatal programming and its effects on childhood and adult obesity
doctors arent just concentrating on sedentary lifestyles or healthy eating anymore, but now
concentrating on the health of a mother when pregnant with a child. The maternal nutrition the
embryo receives has a great effect on the offsprings dietary preferences. In fact McMillen and
Robinson (2005) state, hypothalamic systems controlling food intake and body weight are
affected by these perinatal manipulations and may be involved in mediating the long-term
behavioral and physiological disturbances (p. 12107). For Instance, studies have been done on
rats to compare a pregnant rats with a low-fat diet (LFD), high-fat diet (HFD), and moderate-fat
diet (MFD), the results showed that prenatal HFD exposure has persisting effects on
hypothalamic peptide expression. These findings have helped pose many answers as to what may
contribute to the increased prevalence of childhood obesity over the past 30 years. What about
the other causes of obesity that have been the focus for many years. Causes such as a sedentary
life styles, unhealthy eating choices, and too much television viewing are still contributors to the
obesity epidemic. This article just happened to focus more on the effect of how prenatal
programming contributes to obesity.
The main idea behind this article is to introduce students to the process of prenatal
programming and its effects on the humans postnatal environment as well as how it effects the
humans hypothalamic system. The author doesnt give any insight on how to introduce the
subject to the class and also doesnt give insight to a hook for the class to become engaged. The
teacher should explain that prenatal programming is the general idea that during development of
the embryo and fetus important physiological parameters can be reset by environmental events
and then go on to explain how this can effect postnatal weight gain, which might be a new
insight to America and other countries obesity epidemic. This type of research is fairly new,
because it only began in the early 1990s due to the Dutch Hunger studies by David Barker.
Barker explains that the environmental piece begins in the womb because a pregnant womans
body competes with her fetus for food. Then, when the baby is born it will look and act healthy,
but its organs are subtly compromised in a way that wont present themselves until later in their
adult lives. For instance, underweight newborns are programmed in their mothers womb to not
have much food, and when confronted later on in life with abundance of food their insulin levels
become overwhelmed. Now, when a mother is overweight and overproduces insulin to her fetus
the baby is pre-exposed to childhood diabetes which is also linked to obesity. Shell (2003)
explains, This may help explain why Hispanic and Asian American teenagers born to poor

families but brought up in the food-rich environment of the United States are more than twice as
likely as their parents to be dangerously overweight (p. 179). This is why environmental
concerns have begun to surface concerning how much of a change in the maternal diet can affect
the embryo. If there is a mild change in maternal diet then the vascular and endothelial cells
constrict which in turn messes up the hypothalamic pituitary axis (Shell, 2003, p. 183). The
hypothalamic pituitary axis is basically involved in almost everything so an alteration in this can
cause many complications later on.
The fear for women is present when this topic is brought up because they dont want to
be responsible for their offspring to become obese in their adult life. The article takes a look
further into the lifestyle of 8,000 Southampton women. During the observation of these women
the physicians are focused on promotion of health rather than treatment of the disease. The
findings proved that the health of the mother is the ultimate factor and that we cant blame
everything on genes that are passed down from conception. The author provides statistics on the
growing numbers of obese children to provide a clear view of how alarming obesity is becoming.
According to Shell (2003), reports show an alarming number of super-obese children, of 120pound three year-olds, and 400-, 500-, and even 600- pound teenagers (p.186). I combined the
article Calories, energy, and the food you eat as the current topic article related to Shells topic
discussed in chapter nine of The hungry gene: The inside story of the obesity industry. The
reason I chose to combine this article with the topic discussed in the book is because it is
designed to give students the opportunity to use mathematical computations along with real
world decisions that they make every day when deciding what to eat. This article will extend
their research into the effects foods can have on our bodies.
To begin the activity teachers can eat a few bites of a chip then look at the nutrition label
and become appealed as to what they read. Then the teacher can hand them all different bags of
chips and candy. The teacher would then allow students to research and discuss in groups what
each nutrient actually is and what it does for our bodies. Students will present to the class their
nutritional facts and whether or not their snack is a healthy choice. The students will analyze and
place the snacks in order from least to greatest based on their nutritional factors. Students should
conclude what nutrients are and how important it is to read the nutrition labels on our food in
order to obtain a healthy lifestyle.
Now you can begin to introduce the mathematics behind the nutrition factors and the
calories we burn by introducing another activity for the students. The article does provide a
mathematical equation and tables to determine how many calories consumed in a day. The
Science Scope article also provides several website suggestions as well as questions for students
to consider as they conduct their research.
This type of activity is important for middle school students to comprehend because
eating healthy is part of everyday life. Students need to understand this process and how it affects
their bodies and when they get older potentially the body of another human, so they can make
informed decisions about exerting energy, drinking water, and eating healthy. It also allows for
them to understand what type nutrients are in certain foods and the impact it has on humans from
the prenatal and postnatal stand point. If students can understand the aspects of human impact on

their own health and the impact that prenatal programming has on the health of others they may
draw their own conclusions about this topic in the world in which we live in today.
This is a great way to introduce students to obesity and the many factors that scientist
believe contribute to the epidemic. Adding a hook and one or two activities to the lesson would
increase the odds of capturing the students attention. I have added a hook and two activities in
my presentation to capture my fellow classmates curiosity on the highly controversial subject of
obesity. The use of interpreting nutrients from real world objects is great, and I will demonstrate
how to determine them and allow for the class to as well. I have also included some videos
addressing obesity to ensure there are multiple means of representation. This news article digs
deeper into a certain cause of obesity that physicians have found only since the early 1990s that
contributes the epidemic to prenatal programming.

Georgia Performance Standards:

S7CS3. Students will use computation and estimation skills necessary for analyzing data
and following scientific explanations.
a. Analyze scientific data by using, interpreting, and comparing numbers in several
equivalent forms, such as integers and decimals.
d. Draw conclusions based on analyzed data.

S7L2. Students will describe the structure and function of cells, tissues, organs, and organ
systems.
e. Explain the purpose of the major organ systems in the human body (i.e., digestion,
respiration, reproduction, circulation, excretion, movement, control, and coordination,
and for protection from disease).

S7L3. Students will recognize how biological traits are passed on to successive generations.
a. Explain the role of genes and chromosomes in the process of inheriting a specific trait.

S7CS9. Students will investigate the features of the process of scientific inquiry.
Students will apply the following to inquiry learning practices:
a. Scientific investigations are conducted for different reasons. They usually involve
collecting evidence, reasoning, devising hypotheses, and formulating explanations.

S7CS10. Students will enhance reading in all curriculum areas by:

c. Building vocabulary knowledge

Demonstrate an understanding of contextual vocabulary in various subjects.

Use content vocabulary in writing and speaking.

Explore understanding of new words found in subject area texts.

References
Chang, G. (2008). Maternal High-Fat Diet and Fetal Programming: Increased Proliferation of
Hypothalamic Peptide-Producing Neurons That Increase Risk for Overeating and Obesity. The
Journal of Neuroscience, 28(46), 1210712119-1210712119.
Farenga, S. (2006). Calories, energy, and the food you eat. Science Scope, 50-52.
Georgia Department of Education. (2015). Georgia performance standards. Retrieved from
https://www.georgiastandards.org/Standards/Georgia%20Performance%20Standards/
SeventhGradeRevisedStandards.pdf
Heerwagen, M. (2010, September 1). Maternal obesity and fetal metabolic programming: A
fertile epigenetic soil. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
Shell, E. (2003). The Child Is Father Of The Man. In The hungry gene: The inside story of the
obesity industry (pp. 172-190). New York: Grove Press.