Researchers in Italy have discovered that feeding young rats a high-fat, low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diet protected them from behavioural effects of prenatal stress, suggesting that changing nutrition could prevent mood disorders.  

It’s known that stress experienced by mothers during pregnancy can have lasting psychological and developmental effects on their offspring.  

Researchers from EARA member University of Milan exposed rats to stress during the last week of their pregnancy. As soon as the offspring were weaned, they fed them either a control or a ketogenic diet.  

After six weeks, the researchers analysed their sociability and depression-like signs, such as spending less time grooming. Half of the control rats showed stress-related issues later in life, compared with only 22% of males and 12% of females fed a ketogenic diet.  

“If these findings translate to humans, we may be able to treat the long-term burden of prenatal trauma simply by adjusting what at risk kids eat,” said Alessia Marchesin, researcher at University of Milan and leader of the unpublished work presented at the ECNP conference in Amsterdam. 

Aniko Korosy, from the University of Amsterdam and not involved in the study, agreed that this was a good contribution to the field of nutritional psychiatry while highlighting that more studies are needed to understand which nutrients are involved in mental health effects.