Scientists want to put hormones in baby food 'to beat obesity'

LYNDSAY MOSS
The Scotsman
Apr. 23, 2007

Related: Who Controls the Food Controls the People FEEDING babies a special infant formula containing hunger-suppressing hormones could stop them getting fat later in life, researchers believe.

Scientists are currently studying the prospect of adding leptin to baby and children's foods as part of the solution to obesity.

They admitted that their work was still in the very early stages, and larger studies were needed.

Concerns have also been raised over the repercussions of tampering with babies' brains - essentially programming them not to overeat.

Animal trials at the Clore Laboratory, University of Buckingham, have found that exposure to leptin early in life can programme the brain to stop over-eating.

Professor Mike Cawthorne, director of metabolic research, found that giving leptin supplements to baby rats provided protection against obesity and diabetes. Even adult rats remained slim after taking the leptin-laced supplements.

The body naturally produces leptin throughout life, but the amount produced in infancy is thought to "hard-wire" the body's energy-balance settings.

It may also determine whether someone is fat or thin even before they are born. Giving an extra leptin boost early in life may therefore stop later weight gain.

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

Rats born to leptin-fed mothers stayed lean even when fed a high-fat diet, while the offspring of those mothers who were untreated gained weight and developed diabetes. Prof Cawthorne said supplementing infant feed with leptin would only be giving babies what they would normally get from mothers' milk.

Some research suggests that breast-fed babies are protected against obesity, while bottle-fed babies are more likely to be overweight as adults.

Prof Cawthorne said: "The supplemented milks are simply adding back something that was originally present. Breast milk contains leptin and formula feeds don't."

Other studies using leptin in adults to help reduce hunger have been less successful.

Prof Cawthorne said this may be due to the fact that the subjects' brains, in adulthood, were already "hard-wired". He said that leptin was likely only to have an effect on the more malleable brains of babies.