Hormones In Baby Food "To Beat Obesity"

By Jeff

English researchers believe they have found a means to help control obesity by feeding babies a special infant formula containing the hunger-suppressing hormone leptin. Although the research is in the very early stages, animal trials at the Clore Laboratory at the University of Buckingham have found that exposure to leptin in the early phases of life can program the brain to stop over-eating.

Mike Cawthorne, the director of metabolic research, discovered that giving leptin supplements to baby rats helped prevent obesity and even diabetes. Even adult rats remained thin after taking the leptin supplements.

Leptin is naturally produced throughout life, but the amount produced in infancy is thought to establish the body's energy-balance settings for life. It may also determine a person's predisposition to being fat or thin even before they are born. This study is suggesting that giving an extra leptin boost early in life may therefore stop later weight gain.

The most recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology and Chemis-try & Industry magazine, also suggested that giving the hormone to pregnant rats could have a lifelong impact on their offspring.

Professor Cawthorne stated that "The supplemented milks are simply adding back something that was originally present. Breast milk contains leptin and formula feeds don't." This statement is in response to research that suggests the babies who are breast-fed are protected against obesity, while bottle fed babies are more likely to be overweight as adults.

There is a lot of controversy regarding this topic already. There are many who believe that there shouldn't be any artificial interference in the process of infant development, and that parents should teach healthy lifestyles to their children as they grow up.

It will be interesting to see how future research of this kind will affect the science of hormones in foods.

Source: http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=622112007