Trusted Information for Healthy Pregnancies
diet
Finally, an Excuse for Pregnant Women to Eat Bacon and Eggs
Jan 4th
If you're pregnant and looking for an excuse to eat bacon and eggs, now you've got one: a new research study published in the January 2010 print issue of the FASEB Journal by a team of University of North Carolina researchers shows that choline plays a critical role in helping fetal brains develop regions associated with memory. Choline is found in meats, including pork, as well as chicken eggs.
"Our study in mice indicates that the diet of a pregnant mother, especially choline in that diet, can change the epigenetic switches that control brain development in the fetus," said Steven Zeisel, the senior scientist involved in the work and a senior member of the FASEB Journal's editorial board. "Understanding more about how diet modifies our genes could be very important for assuring optimal development."
Zeisel and colleagues made this discovery by feeding two groups of pregnant mice different diets during the window of time when a fetus develops its hippocampus, that part of the brain responsible for memory. The first group received no choline while the other received choline (1.1g/Kg). The group that received no choline had changes in epigenetic marks on the proteins (histones) that wrap genes in cells responsible for the creation of new brain cells (neural progenitor cells). Then, by isolating these cells from the developing brains and growing them in cell culture, the scientists determined the expression of genes for two proteins that regulate neuronal cell creation and maturation. These two proteins (G9a and Calb1) were changed in the brains of fetuses whose mothers were fed low choline diets.
The Agricultural Research Service says that "experts suggest that an adequate choline intake is 425 milligrams a day for women and 550 milligrams a day for men. Top sources of choline include meat, nuts, and eggs."
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Sugary Soda Tied to Gestational Diabetes
Dec 2nd
Women who drink five or more servings of sugar-sweetened cola per week before they conceive increase their risk of developing diabetes during pregnancy, a new study indicates.
"Previous studies have shown an association with other chronic metabolic problems," said study author Dr. Liwei Chen, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, in New Orleans. "This is the first to show an increased risk among pregnant women."
Gestational diabetes, known as glucose intolerance during pregnancy, is one of the most common complications of pregnancy. It increases the chances of lifelong diabetes for the woman and also can have permanent effects on the unborn child, Chen said. The report appears in the December issue of Diabetes Care.
"Other studies suggest that babies born to women who are diabetic during pregnancy have higher weight at birth and also higher rates of obesity and diabetes early in life," she added.
Chen, working with researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, studied 10 years of medical records on a group of 13,475 women from the Nurses' Health Study II. After adjusting for known risk factors for gestational diabetes, such as age, family history and smoking, the researchers found that women who had more than five servings per week of sugar-sweetened cola beverages had a 22 percent higher risk of gestational diabetes than women who had less than one serving per month.
No such association was found for consumption of other sugar-sweetened beverages or artificially sweetened drinks.
It's not clear why only cola drinks are associated with the increased risk, Chen said. One explanation could be "the tremendous popularity of cola in the United States," she said.
According to the journal report, there are several potential explanations for the association. For example, sugar-rich foods or beverages can overload the body with glucose, which can impair the function of the beta cells of the pancreas, which make insulin that metabolizes glucose.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are the leading source of added sugar in the American diet, Chen said. The U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that soft drink intake more than doubled between 1977 and 2001 among 19- to 39-year-old Americans, going from 4.1 percent to 9.8 percent, and that those in this age group had the highest rate of soft drink consumption.
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Low Folate Levels in Pregnancy Tied to ADHD
Nov 4th
Low folate levels during pregnancy are associated with higher odds for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in offspring aged 7 to 9, new research has found.
The findings seem to support the long-held belief that folate (folic acid) levels in expectant mothers influence their children's nervous system development.
The researchers also found that children of mothers with low folate levels had notably smaller head circumference at birth, which may indicate a slower rate of prenatal brain growth.
The study was released online Oct. 28 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
The results are special cause for concern in relation to low-income families, where a mother's nutritional health receives a low priority, and women are less likely to take folic acid supplements prior to becoming pregnant.
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Study Links Folic Acid Supplement in Late Pregnancy to Asthma in Offspring
Nov 4th
Women who take folic acid supplements during the later months of pregnancy may be increasing their baby's risk of developing asthma, according to a newly released Australian study.
Found in its natural form in leafy green vegetables, legumes and some nuts, folic acid is commonly recommended to women trying to conceive to prevent neural defects in the first weeks of pregnancy.
But the Australian study found that women who continue to take folic acid late into pregnancy were 30 percent more likely to give birth to a child which would develop asthma.
"We see a substantial proportion of women taking these folate supplements throughout pregnancy, and it may be because people think it is entirely benign," said Michael Davies, associate professor at Adelaide University.
"Folate is incredibly important because of its role in preventing neural tube defects (like spina bifida). But because it is so important, and so bioactive, it needs to be treated with some respect as well."
Of the 550 women studied, those who took the folic acid supplements before conception and not more than several weeks into their pregnancy had no increased risk of asthma in their children.
But women who took it during weeks 16 to 30 of the pregnancy increased their risk of having a child with asthma by about 30 percent, according to the research, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
"Our finding should be reassuring to women who take folate for the purpose of preventing neural tube defects because we found no evidence of early supplementation (leading to asthma)," Davies told newswire AAP.
Davies said a diet rich in natural folate carried no increased risk of asthma for the baby.
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