Exploring How Your Diet Can Influence the Genetic Health of Future Generations

If your parents or grandparents had poor nutrition or were exposed to toxic substances, you may be suffering from its ill effects today, along with your offspring.

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• Your health today is the result of a complex interplay of factors — including not only your diet but also that of your parents and grandparents

• This is due to epigenetics, which involves changes in gene expression that don’t alter the DNA sequence itself but can be passed down through generations

• Historical events such as famine during the Dutch Hunger Winter provide evidence for diet’s transgenerational effects

• Consuming too much polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) — linoleic acid (LA) in particular — during pregnancy puts future generations at risk

• A growing fetus requires lots of energy, so supporting cellular energy production is key to a healthy pregnancy and ensuring future generations are full of vitality

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Your health today is the result of a complex interplay of factors — including not only your diet but also that of your parents and grandparents. This is due to epigenetics, which involves changes in gene expression that don’t alter the DNA sequence itself but can be passed down through generations.

Nutritional epigenetics, specifically, explores how dietary patterns in one generation can affect subsequent generations. For example, a pregnant woman's diet can influence the epigenetic marks in her fetus, potentially affecting the child's health and even the health of future generations.

Famine Affects the Grandchildren of Those Who Live Through Them

Historical events such as the Dutch Hunger Winter provide evidence for diet’s transgenerational effects. The Dutch Hunger Winter refers to a severe famine that occurred in the Netherlands during the winter of 1944 to 1945, toward the end of World War II.

The famine was caused by a combination of a German blockade, which cut off food and fuel supplies, and an unusually harsh winter. Railways were disrupted and food supplies dwindled. During this period, the daily caloric intake of Dutch citizens dropped to as low as 400 to 800 calories per day, far below the 2,000 daily calories typically recommended. People resorted to eating grass, tulip bulbs and other non-traditional food sources to survive.¹

During this time, about 4.5 million people were exposed to severe famine² and 20,000 died as a result.³ Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences investigated whether exposure to famine in utero is associated with persistent epigenetic changes in the insulin-like growth factor II (IGF2) gene.⁴

IGF2, which is important for human growth and development, is one of the most studied genes affected by epigenetics. It turned out that people who were exposed to famine before birth during the Dutch Hunger Winter had lower levels of DNA methylation in the IGF2 gene compared to their siblings who were not exposed.

This data supports the idea that prenatal and early-life environmental conditions, including dietary changes like famine, can cause lasting epigenetic changes in humans. Animal studies further support these findings, including research showing that paternal diet in sheep affected growth and reproduction of three subsequent generations.⁵

Artificial Sweeteners, Environmental Toxins Also Affect Multiple Generations

If your grandparents had poor nutrition, it could have caused changes in gene expression that were passed down to your parents and eventually to you. But other environmental factors may also cause lasting, transgenerational effects. The artificial sweetener aspartame is among the compounds that not only has harmful effects on its immediate consumer but also on multiple generations thereafter.⁶

A study by Florida State University (FSU) College of Medicine researchers linked aspartame consumption to anxiety and, worse yet, found the mental health changes were passed on to future generations.⁷ The study came about after the research team looked at the transgenerational effects of nicotine, revealing epigenetic changes in sperm cells.⁸

Perhaps most concerning, the changes in genetic expression may affect sex cells, which are then transferred to future generations. “That means lifestyle factors can have a long-term impact on genes, influencing their expression not just later in life but potentially transferring the gene's control settings to future generations through affected sex cells,” Science Alert explained.⁹

Similar effects may be occurring from artificial sweeteners. Study co-author Pradeep Bhide, the Jim and Betty Ann Rodgers Eminent Scholar Chair of Developmental Neuroscience in FSU’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, noted, “We were working on the effects of nicotine on the same type of model. The father smokes. What happened to the children?” He added:¹⁰

“What this study is showing is we need to look back at the environmental factors, because what we see today is not only what’s happening today, but what happened two generations ago and maybe even longer.”

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are another example. They’re widespread in household products, including plastics, and are often found in food and food packaging. With a structure similar to natural sex hormones such as estrogen, they interfere with their normal functions — essentially hijacking them, and the effects may be passed down to multiple generations. As noted in Frontiers in Public Health:¹¹

“There are periods of developmental vulnerability during which exposure to endocrine disruptors is critical. These include the in utero period, the post-natal period, and the adolescence period. These periods are highly sensitive to and dependent on the influence of hormones. The action of hormones during development has different effects depending on these periods, and these effects can persist throughout life.

… Even in adulthood, and therefore outside these periods of vulnerability, endocrine disruptors exercise effects by interacting with hormone receptors … Some endocrine disruptors can induce epigenetic changes that can have transgenerational effects.”

Why You Should Avoid Ultraprocessed Foods, Especially During Pregnancy

Your choice of dietary fats during pregnancy is also crucial for the health of your offspring, and likely future generations as well. Specifically, consuming too much polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) — linoleic acid (LA) in particular — puts your future children at risk.

“In modern westernized societies, there is a high dietary consumption of foods rich in n-6 PUFAs which could have detrimental consequences for the fetus and neonate due to excessive exposure to these fatty acids,” scientists explained in Current Medicinal Chemistry.¹² “They can … be transformed into inflammatory metabolites promoting the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and autoimmune or inflammatory conditions.” Further:¹³

An elevated intake of n-6 PUFA, specifically LA, during pregnancy [negatively] influences children's motor, cognitive, and verbal development during infancy and early childhood. Similarly, they could harm the placenta and the development of other fetal organs such as the fat tissue, liver, and cardiovascular system …

Maternal diet, specifically LA intake, could have significant repercussions on fetal development and long-term consequences in the offspring, including the possibility of future metabolic and mental diseases. It would be necessary to focus on the prevention of these alterations through timely dietary interventions in the target population.”

It’s interesting to note that black oak acorns, which are squirrels’ food of choice when it comes to gaining weight ahead of winter, are very low in saturated fat with very high amounts of monounsaturated fat and “quite a bit of” polyunsaturated fat along with starch.

This “recipe” effectively fattens up squirrels for the winter and does the same in those who consume modern-day diets with a similar makeup, including high amounts of polyunsaturated fat like LA. In humans, diets high in LA may prime you and your offspring for obesity, infertility and chronic disease.

The Link Between Ultraprocessed Foods and Infertility

Eating more ultraprocessed foods, which are rich in LA, is linked to lower sperm count, concentration and motility in men of reproductive age.¹⁴ Men who consumed the most ultraprocessed foods had lower sperm concentration and motility compared to those who ate the least. For every 10% increase in energy from ultraprocessed foods, total sperm count decreased by 1.5 million.

The researchers suggested that replacing even 10% of energy from ultraprocessed foods with unprocessed or minimally processed foods could improve total sperm count, concentration and motility, but, ideally, your intake of LA should be below 5 grams a day.

Other research involving patients in infertility clinics linked higher consumption of ultraprocessed foods with an increased risk of asthenozoospermia,¹⁵ a condition characterized by reduced sperm motility, which means that a significant percentage of sperm are unable to swim properly.

If you’re not sure how much LA you’re consuming, use an online nutritional calculator such as Cronometer to calculate your daily intake. Cronometer will tell you how much omega-6 you’re getting from your food down to the 10th of a gram, and you can assume 90% of that is LA. As mentioned, I recommend keeping your intake below 5 grams a day.

To do this, avoid all seed oils and even fruit oils like olive oil and avocado oils, as they are frequently adulterated with cheap seed oils. Cook with ghee, butter or beef tallow instead, and avoid all ultraprocessed foods, as they are typically loaded with seed oils.

Also avoid eating in restaurants, as nearly all use massive amounts of seed oils to cook with and put them in their sauces and dressings. Lastly, avoid chicken and pork, and stick to bison, lamb and other ruminants as your primary meat sources.

Why LA and EMFs Are Detrimental to Fertility

Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) may also play a role in infertility, with research showing cellphone exposure negatively affects sperm quality.¹⁶ Martin Pall, Ph.D., discovered a previously unknown mechanism of biological harm from microwaves emitted by cellphones and other wireless technologies via voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs) embedded in your cell membranes.¹⁷

VGCCs are activated by microwaves, and when that happens, about 1 million calcium ions per second are released. This massive excess of intracellular calcium then stimulates the release of nitric oxide (NO) inside your cell and mitochondria, which combines with superoxide to form peroxynitrite.

Not only do peroxynitrites cause oxidative damage, they also create hydroxyl free radicals — the most destructive free radicals known. Hydroxyl free radicals decimate mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, their membranes and proteins, resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction. Interestingly, excess LA intake also causes elevated intracellular calcium that leads to peroxynitrite production and impaired cellular energy production.¹⁸

Optimizing Your Cellular Energy Is Key for Healthy Future Generations

A growing fetus requires lots of energy, so supporting cellular energy production is key to a healthy pregnancy and ensuring future generations are full of vitality. Optimizing your mitochondrial function is, meanwhile, crucial for improving your cellular energy. To optimize your mitochondrial function:

• Lower your LA intake as much as possible by avoiding processed foods, seed oils, chicken, pork, seeds and nuts.

• Make sure you’re eating healthy carbs such as ripe fruit, raw honey and maple syrup.

• Decrease lactate production and increase carbon dioxide, as they have opposing effects.¹⁹ You can learn more about this in “The Biology of Carbon Dioxide.”

• Reduce your stress, as chronic stress promotes cortisol release, which is a potent suppressor of mitochondrial function and biogenesis. Progesterone can be quite helpful here, as it’s a potent cortisol blocker. Read “What You Need to Know About Estrogen and Serotonin” to learn more.

• Take supplemental niacinamide, as your mitochondria cannot make energy without it. I recommend taking 50 milligrams of niacinamide three times a day.

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1. Amsterdam Tulip Museum September 25, 2017

2. Population and Development Review December 2022, Pages 959-989, Background

3. OHSU School of Medicine, The Moore Institute May 2021

4. PNAS November 4, 2008, 105 (44) 17046-170

5. PNAS Nexus, Volume 1, Issue 2, May 2022, pgac040

6. PNAS December 2, 2022, 119 (49) e2213120119

7. Florida State University News December 8, 2022

8. PLOS Biology October 16, 2018

9. Science Alert, What Is Epigenetics?

10. Florida State University News December 8, 2022

11. Front Public Health. 2023; 11: 1343047

12. Current Medicinal Chemistry August 1, 2023

13. Current Medicinal Chemistry August 1, 2023

14. Hum Reprod Open. 2024 Jan 17;2024(1):hoae001. doi: 10.1093/hropen/hoae001

15. Front Nutr. 2022 Oct 20:9:941745. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.941745. eCollection 2022

16. Environment International September 2014; 70C: 106-112

17. Rev Environ Health. 2015;30(2):99-116

18. Journal of Lipid Research May 2004, Volume 45, Issue 5, Pages 794-804

19. RayPeat.com Mitochondria and mortality