As we know, nutrition during pregnancy has an impact on the health of both mother and baby. However, we do not know all the advantages and disadvantages of each food… Nine studies, carried out between 2008 and 2020, some of which looked at the case of more than 30,000 women from Spain, Argentina , Denmark, Italy or even the United Kingdom: this is the database that allowed Portuguese researchers tolist the benefits of olive oil on pregnancyboth for the mother and for the fetus.
Several ingredients of olive oil are already known for their health benefits, such as the antioxidants it contains, or the polyphenols. And by bringing together all the data from previous studies, the scientists noticed that in women who consumed it we noticed less than Gestational Diabetes and pre-eclampsia (strong rise in blood pressure after the 20th week of amenorrhea). They believe that these two observations are related to these two ingredients.
Olive oil associated with the same benefits of the Mediterranean diet
Another observation: the future mothers who consumed olive oil in the studies tended to having babies whose height and weight were less out of the norm (too small or too big), compared to the others. This leads them to think that olive oil would have “protective effects” for pregnancy.
Olive oil is one of the key ingredients in mediterranean diet, and we already know that this diet helps to limit the disorders of pregnancy. Previous research has also associated it with a reduced risk of diabetes, pre-eclampsia, hypertension and even premature birth.
Source: Olive oil consumption confers protective effects on maternal-fetal outcomes: a systematic review of the evidence, Nutrition Research, January 2023.
