Posted at: 12/24/2013 4:51 PM
Updated at: 12/24/2013 5:33 PM
By: WNYT Staff
It's well known that women should eat healthy foods before and during pregnancy.
New research suggests a father's diet also plays an important role in his child's health.
The study which used mice, focused on a male's levels of Vitamin B9, or folate, which is found in green leafy vegetables, cereals, fruit and meats.
Litters fathered by males with a folate deficiency were thirty-percent more likely to have birth defects than those whose fathers had normal levels.
Researchers say fathers who are eating high-fat, fast food diets may not be able to metabolize folate in the same way as those who eat more healthy food.