Don't do it 'til you're done having kids.

Thanks Mom, for never having smoked in your lifetime. You may have saved your grandchildren from heart disease. Thanks Dad, for staying fit and not over-indulging during your lifetime. You may have saved your children a lifetime struggle with obesity.

An interesting new study indicates that by smoking, over-eating, drinking in excess or otherwise not taking proper care of your body, you can actually alter your DNA in such a way that your future children and grandchildren will suffer.

An article from timesonline says

According to this new science, known as epigenetics, your ancestors’ diet, smoking habits, exposure to pollutants and levels of obesity could be affecting you today. In turn, your lifestyle could affect your children and grandchildren. For Zwart and millions of others choosing to delay parenthood this raises new moral questions. What effect, for example, will nights spent in wine bars have on their descendants? Will cigarettes smoked today compromise the health of grandchildren? If they become obese is that their right, or does it impose a burden of ill-health on generations yet unborn?

Epigenetics also indicates that our health can be affected by our mother's prenatal condition, as well as our mother's lifestyle choices BEFORE she became pregnant. Most women do take good care of themselves during pregnancy. But what about the years prior to getting pregnant? Poor lifestyle choices may not just damage our own health. Those same choices could be damaging our future children's health.

So, in effect, we are "not owners of our genes but their guardian". This makes it all the more important to take care of our bodies so that the next few generations don't suffer because of our poor lifestyle choices. And just as important, we need to teach our children how to take care of their bodies by not using drugs, smoking cigarettes, over-eating, or drinking in excess.

Hardcore partying, then, is not just damaging to our own bodies and our youth is no longer the time to party. Of course, once we have finished having our kids, we will no longer be jeopardizing the health of future generations. The partying, then, must be done after our childbearing years. Which gives us more to look forward to!

Food for thought. Just don't eat too much of it.