From New Scientist online. Please see my comments below the quoted study.
<< Maternal diet linked to offspring's longevity
18:41 28 January 04

Minor manipulations of a mother's diet can hugely affect the lifespan of her
children, suggests a new study of mice.

"At the two extremes we looked at, the dietary changes increased the
difference in lifespan by more than 50 per cent," says Susan Ozanne, who
performed the research with Nicholas Hales at Cambridge University, UK.

"In humans, this could equate to the difference between reaching 50 and
living to be 75 years old," she says. The research joins existing evidence
that maternal diets in humans can have a life-long impact.

The researchers fed a variety of different diets to a group of 144 mice
pups, as well as their mothers. The pups that lived longest were well fed in
the womb and had mothers whose diets were relatively low in protein during
lactation. Their lifespans were further enhanced if they were not given a
"junk food" type diet, rich in sugar and fat.

The pups that had the shortest lives received a low-protein diet while in
the womb, but were subsequently fed well by their mothers who ate a
protein-rich diet whilst breast feeding. Their lifespans were further
shortened if they ate junk food after weaning. Overall the research
indicates that being well fed in the womb and during infancy helps mice
resist the ill-effects of a junk food diet later.

Calorific value

There is substantial evidence that restricting the calories in a diet
extends lifespan. But although the diets fed to the mice contained different
levels of protein, sugar and fat, Ozanne and Hales did not assess the
calorific value. "We do not know in mice whether the calorie intake was the
same, but when we looked at it in rats it was," Ozanne told New Scientist.

If the conclusions of the animal study turn out to be applicable to humans,
it would have implications for women who choose not to breast feed, Ozanne
believes.

Formula milk is often richer than human milk and mothers also tend to over
feed bottle-fed babies. If this were combined with a baby being premature or
under-weight, the situation would resemble that of the shortest lived mice
pups.

David Finkelstein, of the US National Institute on Aging, told New Scientist
that the results of the study were "very intriguing".

"It is known that if you starve animals of calories while they are still in
the womb then they can suffer from diabetes. The damage that's done in utero
appears to be permanent," he says. "But the truth is, everything that we
know about the effects of calorie restriction diets can be put on the head
of a pin."

Journal reference: Nature (vol 427, p 411)>>

THE WEEK magazine reported about this leaving off the part about formula
feeding, which made it sound as though formula was safe while compared to
breastfeeding if the mother's diet were poor.

Janice Berry, Westerville, OH

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