Maternal nutrition is a key determinant of fetal brain development.
Eating nuts during the first trimester of pregnancy improves the neurological development of the unborn child, according to a new study published in theEuropean Journal of Epidemiology. We are talking about walnuts here, but also hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts and pine nuts.
To draw this conclusion, 2,200 mothers and their child were followed in Spain. The diet of future mothers was evaluated using a questionnaire, and the neuropsychological development of the children was analyzed using several tests 18 months, 5 years and 8 years after their birth.
Cognitive function, attention span and memory
The results showed that the group of children whose mothers ate more nuts during the first trimester of pregnancy performed better in all tests measuring cognitive function, attention span and memory.
“Maternal nutrition is a determining factor in fetal brain development and may have long-term effects,” explains Florence Gignac, researcher at ISGlobal and director of this study. “We believe that the beneficial effects observed could be due to the fact that nuts provide high levels of folic acid and essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6.These components tend to accumulate in neural tissue, especially in the frontal areas of the brain, which influence memory and executive functions,” she continues.
A specific stage of pregnancy
The benefits described in this study were seen in the group of mothers who ate the most nuts, just under three 30-gram servings per week on average. They were not observed when the nuts were consumed during the last trimester of pregnancies.
“This is not the first time that we have observed stronger effects when exposure occurs at a specific stage of pregnancy. Although our study does not explain the causes of the difference between the first and third trimester , the scientific literature speculates that the pace of fetal development varies throughout pregnancy and that there are periods when development is particularly sensitive to maternal nutrition” explains Jordi Júlvez, co-author of the study.
Even without pregnancy, nuts, hazelnuts and almonds are beneficial foods for health, increasingly recommended by nutritionists.
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