A study by the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care found that women who gained excess weight during pregnancy had were four times more likely to have overweight children in early childhood than those who did not gain enough weight during pregnancy. The study was first published in the April issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study researched data collected from 1,044 mothers and their children in from Project Viva, which is a study of pregnant women and children located at the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention’s Obesity Prevention Program.

“Maternal weight gain during pregnancy is an important determinant of birth outcomes,” says lead author Emily Oken, MD, MPH, instructor in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention. “These findings suggest that pregnancy weight gain can influence child health even after birth and may cause the obstetric community to rethink current guidelines.”

Scientists from the University of Glasgow found that fats found in our stomach could reduce the protective benefits of antioxidants including vitamin C. The research is being presented today, at the Society of Experimental Biology’s Annual Main Meeting.

Cancer in the proximal stomach has been increasing over the last 20 years. The researchers report that environmental factors such as diet play a role. Nitrite is also believed to be a pre-carcinogen for gastric cancer.

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is one antioxidant that protects against the formation of nitrite compounds by making it into nitric oxide. If the antioxidants aren’t available, nitrite would form spontaneously into nitrosating species which could target secondary amines and bile acids and forming carcinogenic N-nitrosocompounds.

Reduced calorie intake has show to extend the lifespan of mice of up to 40 percent longer and now new research suggests that eating a reduced calorie diet later in life can still improve longevity. Professor Stephen Spindler (University of California) and his collaborators will be reporting their findings at the Society for Experimental Biology’s Main Meeting in Glasgow being held today.

Eating a low calorie diet that is nutrient dense has shown to help prevent cancer, and also increase longevity in mice studies. Spindler and his colleagues would like to find drugs to mimic the longevity effect because of the difficulty for most people to eat a low calorie and nutritiously dense diet. One drug that is normally used to treat diabetic patients is showing some promise of mimicking a reduced calorie diet. Spindler and the researchers are not sure if healthy people would benefit from taking this drug and if taken over a lifetime, there is a toxicity that could contradict the longevity benefits.