A new study revealed that junk food may lead to heart disease and diabetes in unborn babies.

The researchers at the Royal Veterinary College fed female rats a diet full of crisps, muffins, cheese and other processed foods all through pregnancy and lactation.

The offspring, who were overweight during birth time, were born with a taste for junk food themselves. But even when fed a balanced diet, the junk-food babies had lots of medical problems, which lasted beyond adolescence into adulthood.

The rats had advanced cholesterol and triglyceride levels -- both linked with heart problems. Insulin and glucose present in the blood were also high, which is known to be a reason of type-2 diabetes.

And the rats remained significantly fatter than normal with additional fat around the kidneys, another diabetes risk-factor.

The female offspring were particularly badly affected, showing higher levels of glucose and the appetite-promoting hormone leptin making them very prone to obesity.

Lead author Stéphanie Bayol said, “It seems that a mother's diet whilst pregnant and breastfeeding is very important for the long-term health of her child.”

“This does not mean that obesity and poor health are inevitable and it is important that we take care of ourselves and live a healthy lifestyle. But it does mean that mothers must eat responsibly whilst pregnant,” Bayol added.

But will these results translate to humans? Very probably, said Neil Stickland, a co-author of the study.

“Humans share a number of fundamental biological systems with rats, so there is good reason to assume the effects we see in rats may be repeated in humans,” he said.

The study findings have been published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Physiology.