When a pregnant mother consumes a high-fat diet, it can produce changes in her offspring's brain that lead to overeating and obesity, according to a new study.

Researchers at Rockefeller University reported the finding after a study of rats. Sometimes, results from animal studies do not translate to people.

"We've shown that short-term exposure to a high-fat diet in utero produces permanent neurons in the fetal brain that later increase the appetite for fat," said senior author Sarah F. Leibowitz.

Leibowitz has shown in other animal studies that obese and diabetic mothers produce heavier children and that exposure to fat-rich foods early in life leads to obesity in adulthood.

The researchers found that rat pups born to mothers who consumed the high fat diet, even after the diet had been removed at birth, ate more, weighed more throughout life and began puberty earlier than those born to mothers who ate a balanced diet for the same two week period.

Part of the research was to determine why. A news release said that the pups from the high-fat mothers had more neurons in their brain that produce an appetite-stimulating substance, and they kept those neurons through their lives.

She also said the results could apply to human children.

"We're programming our children to be fat," she said. "I think it's very clear that there's vulnerability in the developing brain, and we've identified the site of this action where new neurons are being born."