Development of Metabolomics to Interrogate the Effects of Maternal Sugar Overconsumption on Pregnant Rats and Their Offspring

Sugars such as sucrose (table sugar) are extremely common in the diet, in Canada and across the world. The World Health Organization advises that added sugars should make up 5% or less of daily calories for adults, and even less for children under 2 years. However, in Canada, adults and children often greatly exceed these recommendations. Of particular concern, added sugars during early development might have major and long-lasting effects on hormones, neural circuits, and behaviour. Our work is to develop sensitive and robust metabolomics technology to identify the key sugar products and other chemicals that play a key role in this biological process. This work allows us to understand the molecular basis between sugar intake and the long-lasting effects on adult offspring. The results will have important implications for the health of Canadians because very little is known about how mother’s sugar intake affects the baby health and diseases.