Early diet may leave hidden, long-term imprints on the brain’s control of eating.
Eating unhealthy foods early in life can lead to lasting changes in the brain and eating behavior, but gut bacteria may help restore healthier patterns, according to a new study from University College Cork (UCC).
Researchers at APC Microbiome, a leading institute at UCC, found that a high-fat, high-sugar diet during early development can alter how the brain controls eating over the long term. These effects can persist even after the diet improves and body weight returns to normal.
Children today are surrounded by environments where high-fat, high-sugar foods are easy to access and heavily promoted. These foods are commonly present at birthday parties, school events, sports activities, and even used as rewards for good behavior, making them a regular part of early life.
The study highlights how this repeated exposure can have lasting consequences. Regular consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods during childhood may shape food preferences and reinforce unhealthy eating habits that continue into adulthood.
Lasting Effects of Early Diet on the Brain
Published in Nature Communications, the research also points to possible ways to reduce these long-term effects. Interventions targeting the gut microbiota, including a beneficial bacterial strain (Bifidobacterium longum APC1472) and prebiotic fibers (fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), naturally present in foods such as onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus, and bananas, and widely available in fortified foods and prebiotic supplements), showed potential when used across the lifespan.
In a preclinical mouse model, early exposure to a high-fat, high-sugar diet led to lasting changes in feeding behavior that continued into adulthood. These changes were linked to disruptions in the hypothalamus, a key brain region that regulates appetite and energy balance.
What we eat early in life matters
“Our findings show that what we eat early in life really matters,” said Dr. Cristina Cuesta-Martí, first author of the study. “Early dietary exposure may leave hidden, long-term effects on feeding behavior that are not immediately visible through weight alone.”
The findings indicate that poor diets early in life can disrupt brain pathways involved in controlling eating, with effects that persist into adulthood. This pattern may increase the risk of obesity later on, even if body weight appears normal at earlier stages.
Targeting the gut microbiota helped reduce these long-term effects. The probiotic strain Bifidobacterium longum APC1472 significantly improved feeding behavior while causing only minor changes to the overall microbiome, suggesting a focused mechanism. In contrast, the prebiotic combination (FOS+GOS) produced broader changes in gut microbiota composition.
Targeting the gut microbiota can mitigate the long-term effects
Dr. Harriet Schellekens, lead investigator of the study, added, “Crucially, our findings show that targeting the gut microbiota can mitigate the long-term effects of an unhealthy early-life diet on later feeding behavior. Supporting the gut microbiota from birth helps maintain healthier food-related behaviors into later life.”
Professor John F. Cryan, Vice President for Research & Innovation at UCC and collaborator on the study, said: “Studies like this exemplify how fundamental research can lead to potential innovative solutions for major societal challenges. By revealing how early-life diet shapes brain pathways involved in the regulation of feeding, this work opens new opportunities for microbiota-based interventions.”
Reference: “Bifidobacterium longum and prebiotic interventions restore early-life high-fat/high-sugar diet-induced alterations in feeding behavior in adult mice” by Cristina Cuesta-Marti, Eduardo Ponce-España, Friederike Uhlig, Iris Stoltenborg, Luiza A. Wasiewska, Lamiah Kareem, Dara Hedayatpour, Loreto Olavarría-Ramírez, Cristina Rosell-Cardona, Thomaz. F. S. Bastiaanssen, Gabriel. S. S. Tofani, Benjamin Valderrama, Klara Vlckova, Suzanne L. Dickson, Aonghus Lavelle, Catherine Stanton, R. Paul Ross, John F. Cryan, Timothy G. Dinan, Gerard Clarke, Siobhain M. O’Mahony and Harriët Schellekens, 24 February 2026, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-68968-2
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.
2 Comments
Childhood junk food is a relatively recent development. While fats and sugars were readily available back in the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, Now age 82 I can recall they were mostly natural, real and fit into a more balanced diet than today. Minimally, by the late 1960s good quality meats were being adulterated with soy and increasingly processed more cheaply with hexane with some residue with FDA approval. In 1972 the FDA approved the use of the synthetic cooking oil preservative TBHQ which is now becoming ubiquitous to the standard American diet, by 1975 HFCS was becoming widely used to replace real sugar and in 1980 the FDA approved the expanded use of added MSG. The US female breast cancer epidemic presented by 1979 (ACS and NCI data), obesity and dementia epidemics by 1990 and diabetes by 1994 (CDC data). Was at least soy, TBHQ, HFCS and MSG added to the mouse chow for a more equivalent comparison? Perhaps the probiotics and prebiotics helped the adult mice. The question remains: can they also help adult humans ingesting a plethora of officially (FDA in the US) approved food poisoning, for profit?
Sonic the hedgehog