It seems you are what your parents eat. Parents who eat a high-fat diet can increase the obesity risk in their children through 'epigenetic' inheritance, according to a new study.

A new study done on mice found that the kinds of food that parents eat can be transmitted to their offspring via eggs and sperm cells. Although this 'epigenetic' phenomenon was only previously observed in sperm cells, the scientists found that egg cells are capable of it, too.

The latest evidence of epigenetics and the German research team's findings were published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Bad Diet Habits & Obesity Can Be Passed Down to Kids

For their study, German researchers studied three groups of mice. The first group was fed a high-fat diet while the second was given an appropriate amount of food. The third one was given a low-fat diet. They found that the group on the high-fat diet developed obesity and glucose intolerance.

They then proceeded to make offspring sourced from all three of the mice models. The embryos were then implanted in healthy-weight surrogate mice and once they gave birth, their children were given a diet high in fat.

They found that mice, particularly the female ones that came from obese parents, gained the most weight when fed a high-fat diet. They were also susceptible to developing glucose intolerance. The males were the most prone to glucose intolerance.

"The results showed that both oocytes and sperm passed on epigenetic information, which particularly in the female offspring led to severe obesity," Prof. Johannes Beckers, lead author of the study, said in a statement, via German Research Center for Environmental Health.

Meanwhile, the children of mice that were lean gained the least amount of weight.

"The view so far was that [risk] is all determined by genes-it's fate," said Johannes Beckers, lead author of the study from Helmholtz Zentrum München, as reported by The Scientist. "But our findings give back a certain responsibility to the parents. They really have the possibility to affect what offspring inherit in their epigenome."

Do the Effects Last Well into the Next Generation?

The scientists are not sure why female offsprings are susceptible to obesity while the males are susceptible to glucose intolerance if they come from obese parents. However, researchers note that the experiment is only replicated in mice so it is not clear if this applies to humans.

Science Alert notes that the researchers will further investigate epigenetics and how the mentioned traits are transmitted from parent to offspring.

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