Gestational Diabetes: Prepregnancy Diet High in Animal Fat Appears to Increase Risk

摘要

Women who consumed a diet high in animal fat and cholesterol before pregnancy were at higher risk for gesta-tional diabetes than women whose diets were lower in animal fatimd cholesterol, according to a study published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers studied data for 13,000 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study II. The women were 22 to 45 years old when they enrolled in the study. Every 2 years they responded to questions about their general health, pregnancy status and lifestyle habits, such as consuming alcohol or smoking. In addition, every 4 years they completed a comprehensive survey about the kinds of food and drink they consumed. About 6 percent of the participants reported having been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The researchers calculated the amount of animal fat in participants' diets as a percentage of total calories and divided participants into five groups, or quintiles, based on those percentages. Then the researchers compared the risk for developing gestational diabetes for each group. Women in the highest quintile of intake had almost double the risk for gestational diabetes compared to women in the lowest quintile. They also observed that women in the highest quintile for cholesterol consumption were 45 percent more likely to develop gestational diabetes than were women in the lowest quintile. Women whose diets were high in total fat or other kinds of fats-but not in animal fat or cholesterol-did not have an increased risk. The researchers concluded that changing the source of 5 percent of dietary calories from animal fat to plant-derived sources could decrease a woman's risk for gestational diabetes by 7 percent.