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Every action we take has consequences. This principle also applies to our diet, which will impact those born after us. Your current diet will affect the bodies and environment of your children and grandchildren. From epigenesis to environmental sustainability, your own eating habits will influence future generations, for better or for worse.
Our diet affects our health. We all know that. But did you also know that diet has been shown to affect us genetically? DNA, which forms the very basis of our identity and includes the genes we pass on to our children, is influenced by diet. It makes sense that what we consume today will impact our children's future lives.
Pregnant women, in particular, are expected to consume a healthy diet, as the nutrients they consume go directly to the fetus. But expectant fathers also have a less direct but equally important responsibility toward their children. It has been shown that a man's diet before he has children will affect his children after they are born. 1
The benefits of healthy eating can be passed on for generations
Beginning in the 1930s, Dr. Francis M. Pottenger conducted a 10-year study examining the effects of cat nutrition on subsequent generations. Dr. Pottenger's final results revealed that a nutrient-poor diet caused nutritional damage after only one generation. After the third generation, all cats were unable to reproduce. Despite the major differences between cat and human metabolisms, we can clearly deduce from this study that the quality of one generation's diet significantly affects the next generation, and perhaps those that follow.
Several studies have shown how the benefits of healthy eating and well-being can be passed down through generations, and how eating well is beneficial for babies' health. 2
The importance of healthy eating
After they're born, our children and grandchildren will reap the benefits of healthy eating. Children who grow up in a family that makes time to get together to eat a healthy dinner are much more likely to adopt that same behavior in the future.
They too will favor family meals, and this habit will then be passed on to their own children.
From an external perspective, a healthy and environmentally conscious diet can influence the world of future generations. Agriculture and livestock farming have evolved rapidly since the end of World War II, when researchers discovered that leftover nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (from explosives) made excellent fertilizers for maximizing crop yields. Since then, selective breeding and genetic engineering have introduced agricultural practices to which our bodies and environment are unaccustomed.
A generation focused on health and wellness
While massive agricultural corporations have adopted unsustainable practices to produce maximum yields, a counterculture now seeks to return to more natural food production. Local, organic, and sustainable agriculture does not use pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers.
Farmers often use ancient techniques of field and crop rotation based on the natural renewal of nutrients in the soil, which are more sustainable than the repeated use of fertilizers year after year.
Meats, fruits, and vegetables from these sources are often a bit more expensive. However, as the law of supply and demand dictates, the more popular this diet becomes, the more prices are likely to drop. Furthermore, the more we adopt an ecological approach to food, the better chance we give our children of living in a healthy world.
Tell me what you eat, I'll tell you who you are
We all know the saying, "You are what you eat." So, let's take it a step further and say, "You, your children, and your grandchildren are what you eat." Healthy, sustainably sourced food will impact the world and the health of generations to come. When you think about how deeply connected food and wellness are, not just for you, but for the generation after you, it gives you all the more reason to be very careful about what you put in your body.
- Gunnar Kaati, Lars Olov Bygren, et al. “Transgenerational response to nutrition, early life circumstances and longevity.” European Journal of Human Genetics (2007) 15, 784–790; doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201832 [ ↩ ]
- https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/7/2633 [ ↩ ]