Men with good levels of vitamin D before producing children are more likely to have healthy children.
According to a new study by University College Dublin, which found a direct link between a child’s height and weight at five years old, and their father’s pre-conception vitamin levels.
Researchers analyzed data on 213 father-child pairs from the Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study – a unique longitudinal database in Ireland – when the children were aged five and nine years old.
They carried out a questionnaire to assess a number of factors.
These included paternal age, height, weight, maternal age, vitamin D and energy intake height, and weight.
They also analyzed the child’s sex, age, vitamin D and energy intake, and summer outdoor physical activity.
Compiling all the data, they discovered that paternal vitamin D intake directly impacted child’s height and weight in their early years.
Father’s nutrition status may somehow influence the health, quality and function of their germ cells which are involved in reproduction.