According to brand new research carried out at the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at Rockefeller eating a high-fat diet during pregnancy causes permanent changes in the fetal brain that can result in overeating and obesity early in life. The researchers said their findings help to explain the dramatic rise of childhood obesity in the United States over the past three decades.

"We've shown that short-term exposure to a high-fat diet in utero produces permanent neurons in the fetal brain that later increase the appetite for fat," says senior author Sarah F. Leibowitz, director of the study. "This work provides the first real evidence to link high levels of fat circulating in the mother's blood during pregnancy to the overeating and increased weight gain of offspring after weaning."