Watching what you eat and drink isn't just for moms-to-be anymore. New scientific evidence suggests that the father's diet before conception might be just as important to a child's health.
A study in mice linked nutritional deficiencies in paternal diet to a higher rate of birth defects compared with those whose fathers were fed a normal, well-rounded menu. The findings raise concerns about dads unknowingly passing on harmful traits through molecular markers on the DNA of their sperm.
These epigenetic markers don't change the genetic information, but rather switch parts of the genome on and off.