{"id":975817,"date":"2026-08-02T14:17:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T14:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/975817\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T14:17:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T14:17:31","slug":"baby-has-fat-thighs-and-jelly-belly-dads-diet-may-be-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/975817\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby has fat thighs and jelly belly? Dad’s diet may be to blame"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dad\u2019s diet can affect a baby\u2019s health before they\u2019re even conceived, a new study<\/a> from Brazil suggests.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that the more ultra processed food (think soda and chips, fast food, boxed cereal) a dad eats, the heavier the baby will be at birth, and the more fat in their thighs and suprailiac region just above the hip, commonly known as \u201clove handles.\u201d<\/p>\n

A chubby baby is hardly cause for alarm, but researchers say these signs could point to negative health outcomes as they grow into children and even affect them into adulthood.<\/p>\n

Dads who ate more ultra processed foods had heavier babies with more fat in certain places. Prostock-studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

This helps shine a light on the father\u2019s role in babies\u2019 health outcomes where research has historically focused on how mom\u2019s health affects the baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaternal nutrition and health before, during, and after the baby\u2019s birth have always received attention, but little is said about the role of the father\u2019s diet,\u201d says\u00a0Daniela Sartorelli<\/a>, an author on the study. \u201cOur study shows that it also matters a great deal for the baby\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do dads\u2019 diets affect their babies?<\/p>\n

This study showed dads who eat a lot junk food have babies that weigh more. A previous study showed overweight dads actually had babies who weighed less.<\/p>\n

Either way, dad\u2019s health and choices make a difference.<\/p>\n

Babies born heavy or light have an increased risk of death, but also are more likely to develop noncommunicable diseases later in life like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.<\/p>\n

Being too heavy can also slow down physical learning milestones,<\/a> like crawling and walking.<\/p>\n

How does a dad\u2019s lifestyle affect his kids?<\/p>\n

Researchers believe ultra-processed foods feed inflammation, affecting sperm, and changing which genes are turned on or off in the baby.<\/p>\n

Eating ultra processed food had the opposite effect of being overweight on baby weight. Nattakorn \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cThis process is known as epigenetics,\u201d explains\u00a0Mariana Rinaldi Carvalho<\/a>, co-author of the study. \u201cGene activity can be \u2018activated\u2019 or \u2018deactivated\u2019 depending on the father\u2019s dietary habits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, researchers looked at the gene IGF-II, which is inherited from the father only. This is responsible fetal growth.<\/p>\n

While dads\u2019 consumption of ultra processed foods were associated with higher birth weights in the baby, mom\u2019s habits actually showed the opposite.<\/p>\n

When moms ate these foods in early pregnancy (up until the 16th week, it was associated with lower birth weight, shorter height, and smaller head circumference at birth. Researchers believe that\u2019s because ultra-processed foods are \u201cnutrient poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overweight babies can have health consequences into adulthood. Parilov \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Avoiding ultra-processed foods<\/p>\n

These foods can have serious consequences outside of how it might affect babies.<\/p>\n

Ultra processed foods<\/a> can put people at higher risk of\u00a0cardiovascular disease<\/a>,\u00a0cancer<\/a>, metabolic syndrome,\u00a0obesity<\/a>, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, Type 2\u00a0diabetes<\/a>, depression, dementia and even premature death.<\/p>\n

Look out for foods that are made from extracts rather than whole foods and put together in a lab<\/a>. They often include preservatives, sweeteners, colorants, flavor enhancers, emulsifiers, and other additives not found in a typical home kitchen.<\/p>\n

Instead of being made from food ingredients, they\u2019re made to resemble flavor and mimic texture of food made in a kitchen. For example, you might find synthetic vanillin rather than actual vanilla used. Stabilizers might be used for things like dressing, to keep the oil and vinegar together where they would naturally separate.<\/p>\n

Some examples of ultra processed foods are soft drinks, powdered mixes for making fruit-flavored drinks, sweets and chocolates, cereal bars, ice cream, packaged bread, margarine, cake mixes, morning cereals, pre-prepared pizzas, chicken and fish nuggets, sausages, hamburgers and other reconstituted meat products and instant noodles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dad\u2019s diet can affect a baby\u2019s health before they\u2019re even conceived, a new study from Brazil suggests.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":975818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[6922,4761,210,10943,4757,67,132,68,3149],"class_list":["post-975817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-diets","tag-fatherhood","tag-health","tag-obesity","tag-parenting","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wellness"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117026347305296379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/975818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}