IS THE HEALTH OF THE OFFSPRING REALLY ONLY THE MOTHER’S RESPONSIBILITY?

Decades of research have been dedicated to link the mother’s health and nutritional habits with the health of their children in both the short and the long term. And yes, it is important of course! However, what do we know about the effect of the father’s nutritional habits? Is the father’s only job really to contribute sperm to fertilize the egg? In short, the answers are “yes” and “no”. Yes, because the nutritional habits of the father also affect the offspring. And no, because the sperm does not only contribute genetic material, but also play a fundamental role in fetal and child development.  

In an elegant review, Skerrett-Byrne and colleagues (2025) remind us that sperm is far from being only a passive DNA carrier, but rather is an epigenetically active player …