Common Food Ingredient Found to Influence Children’s Lifelong Health - Video

What a mother eats during pregnancy might shape her child’s gut health for life. A new study from the Institut Pasteur and Inserm has found that dietary emulsifiers-common additives in processed foods-can disrupt the gut microbiota of offspring, even when only the mother consumes them. Published in Nature Communications, the research reveals how these subtle early-life changes may raise the risk of chronic inflammatory bowel conditions and obesity in adulthood, pointing to possible intergenerational effects of modern diet additives.

Emulsifiers are substances added to products like ice cream, baked goods, sauces, and even baby formulas to improve texture and shelf stability. Although considered safe, questions have grown about their impact on the gut microbiome—the trillions of bacteria essential to digestion and immune balance. To explore this, researchers led by Dr. Benoit Chassaing, head of the Microbiome Host Interactions Laboratory at Institut Pasteur, designed a controlled experiment to examine how maternal exposure might ripple across generations.

The team fed female mice two common emulsifiers—carboxymethyl cellulose (E466) and polysorbate 80 (E433)—starting ten weeks before pregnancy and continuing through pregnancy and breastfeeding. Their offspring, which never consumed emulsifiers directly, were then monitored for gut bacterial composition, immune interaction, and long term health outcomes.

The results were striking. Within weeks of birth, the young mice showed major shifts in gut microbiota, particularly a rise in flagellated bacteria that overstimulate immune cells and trigger inflammation. Microscopic analyses revealed that bacterial “encroachment”—bacteria pressing closer to the intestinal wall—was more common in these offspring. This led to an early closure of key gut immune communication pathways, which normally help the immune system learn to tolerate friendly microbes. As a consequence, the offspring developed chronic gut inflammation and higher body fat as they reached adulthood.

The findings highlight an important message: what mothers eat may influence their children’s future health far more deeply than we realize—and understanding these dietary links could be key to preventing gut related diseases for generations to come.

REFERENCE: Clara Delaroque, Héloïse Rytter, Erica Bonazzi, Marine Huillet, Sandrine Ellero-Simatos, Eva Chatonnat, Fuhua Hao, Andrew Patterson, Benoit Chassaing. Maternal emulsifier consumption alters the offspring early-life microbiota and goblet cell function leading to long-lasting diseases susceptibility. Nature Communications, 2025; 16 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62397-3