A new study has revealed that men hoping to become fathers should also consider eating healthy diet and increasing physical activity to improve health outcomes of a baby, even before conception.
The findings offer a clue into why children of obese dads are also more likely to be obese themselves and suggests that nongenetic factors like diet can be passed down through sperm.
“The epigenetic landscape of human sperm is dynamic and vulnerable to environmental changes,” the researchers write in the study.
They acknowledge that other factors, such as the socioeconomic status of the father, could also be involved in the outcome of a child’s weight.
The researchers claim studying sperm differences as they relate to lifestyle factors such as smoking and exercise could provide further insight into how epigenetics figures into the health of a child.