A new study has found that the diet of a mum before conception and in early pregnancy can have an effect on the future health of their child.
The study was carried out by Dr Branwen Hennig from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Dr Hennig studied the pre-conception diet of 180 women in rural Gambia and stated that: "Our results have shown that maternal nutrition pre-conception and in early pregnancy is important and may have implications for health outcomes of the next generation."
The research showed that babies conceived in Gambia during the rainy season had been influenced more by their mum's genes that babies conceived during the dry season.
These differences were concluded to be linked to different levels of nutrients in the mum's blood which had been influenced by the amount and type of food they had been eating.
Dr Hennig said that it is important for women to have a "well-balanced food diet prior to conception and during pregnancy."
