Each new generation seems somehow physically improved compared to previous ones. It's a fact that current generations are taller than the ones before it, and this is attributed to a better alimentation and knowledge about food.

Now, the Clore Laboratory at the University of Buckingham is developing an infant formula and other baby foods that offer protection for life against obesity and diabetes! These food items will contain in their formula leptin, the hunger hormone and individuals fed early in their life with these foods could remain slim for ever.

"Like those people who are lean by nature even though they overeat, they will tend to be inefficient in terms of using energy," said lead researcher Mike Cawthorne, head of the Metabolic Research team at Clore.

When his team added leptin to infant rats' diets, they never got fat or developed diabetes, even when fed with a high-fat diet. Leptin is a hormone that turns off hunger sensation in the brain.

Despite its well proven function, leptin proved ineffective in individuals, as they soon got resistance to its effect.

"This time things are different." said Cawthorne.

When the team fed the rat individuals with leptin earlier enough in their development, they could have affected the body's energy balance mechanisms.

It is known that fat or thin construction is something predetermined before birth. When the hormone was administered to pregnant rats, it inflicted a lifelong impact on their offspring's genetic tendency to obesity. These offspring kept a lean construction even when administered a fat-laden diet, at which other individuals got overweight and developed diabetes.

The leptin affected the energy waste of the bodies. "The infants are permanently inefficient in terms of using energy," said Cawthorne.

The discovery could be employed in both human and vet medicine.

"We need to know whether leptin is acting pre- and post-natally, figure out how it works, and dissect the possible side-effects before this becomes a potential approach for humans. Nonetheless, this is good science," said Edinburgh researcher Jonathan Seckl.