Heftier babies may not be healthier later

Bigger babies are not guaranteed to grow into healthier adults when it comes to cholesterol levels and related heart disease problems, research has shown.

The new finding, based on studies covering more than 74,000 people worldwide, is the latest report to question a theory that enhanced nutrition during pregnancy leads to bigger birth weights that protect against a variety of later-life ills.

Researchers at Australia’s University of Sydney and at England’s Oxford University and St. George’s Hospital said they found cholesterol levels only fractionally higher in adults who were light at birth compared with adults who were heavy babies.

“While good maternal nutrition during pregnancy is clearly important, there is little evidence to suggest that size at birth is a risk factor for later disease in adult life,” said Rachel Huxley of the George Institute for International Health at the University of Sydney, the chief author of the report.

“What matters most is how we choose to live now. Eating well, exercising and not smoking are key to a long and healthy life,” she added in the report, which was published in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.