There’s a saying that goes like this, ” you are what you eat.” True indeed. But a piece of more specific information would be, you are what you eat at childhood. It is because, according to recent research, childhood eating habits can disturb one’s microbiome balance for good, which can affect one’s health even after that particular eating habit is changed in adulthood.
UC Riverside researchers carried on this study, and a paper explaining this study was published in ‘Journal of Experimental Biology.’ In this study, the UC Riverside researchers had done an experiment with mice. In the experiment, the researchers have found a decreasing amount of good bacteria in those mice’s intestines, who were fed unhealthy food as juveniles. As a result, the microbiome of the animal was hampered.
Here microbiome refers to the existence of good viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other parasites in the animals’ intestine. These microbiomes are responsible for stimulating the immune system, synthesizing essential vitamins, improving carbohydrate metabolism, etc. As a result, when the microbiome is disturbed, the body becomes more vulnerable to diseases.
Though carried on in mice, this study applies to humans, as the human body functions similarly, claim the researchers. People who developed healthy food habits as children are less likely to get sick than those who didn’t. So, it can be interpreted how crucial childhood diets can be. So, getting into diet and eating healthy for staying fit shouldn’t be the motto in adult life only, this motto should be adopted from the very beginning of the childhood period as well.
Anika Tasnim Haque, content writing department
