Babies of moms who drank alcohol around the time they were conceived face a much higher risk of Type 2 diabetes and obesity in early middle age.

Researchers at University of Queensland Australia found that as few as five drinks around the time of conception altered the development of the fetus.

"Before the egg implants, before any organs start to develop, alcohol consumption somehow causes changes to the embryo," said Dr. Karen Moritz.

"Anything that affects fetal development can cause long term programming, which means offspring can be born with increased risk and susceptibility to disease later in life.

"Monitoring the offspring of the laboratory rat model, we found the risk of becoming obese and developing Type 2 diabetes in early middle age dramatically increased," Dr. Moritz said.

"The usual risk factors of these two diseases are attributed to poor diet and lack of exercise, but our research showed exposure to alcohol around conception presents a risk similar to following a high-fat diet for a major proportion of life."

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 29 million Americans have diabetes, and 86 million more are prediabetic: They have blood sugars higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. Without weight loss and exercise, up to 30 percent of pre-diabetics will develop diabetes within five years.

Dr. Moritz said her study was particularly important because so many pregnancies were unplanned.

"Although most women stop drinking once they discover they are pregnant, a significant proportion are consuming alcohol at the time of conception, before they even know," she said.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 51 percent of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned.

"Our future research will be focusing on the possibility of administering preventative interventions.

"One possibility is giving some type of nutrient to the mother, even in later pregnancy, to see if the changes caused by the early alcohol exposure can be prevented, and in turn prevent the possible long-term disease outcomes for offspring."

The study is published in The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.