A new study published in the medical journal Diabetologia shows that women who eat fried foods regularly suffer from more frequent Gestational Diabeteswhen they are pregnant.
For this study, researchers at Harvard University (USA) examined the medical records of 15,000 women who participated in a large survey of nurses. All had completed a questionnaire on their diet and lifestyle, including how often they ate fried foods, fruits and vegetables, and how much they drank or smoked.
This is how they realized that women who ate fried foods at least seven times a week had an 88% higher risk of gestational diabetes than women who ate it less than once a week.
The study also showed that those who ate four to six times a week increased this risk by 16%.
Diabetes that poses risks for mom and her unborn baby
“The harmful effects of consuming fried foods on the risk of gestational diabetes can result from the modification of foods and the production of harmful by-products during the frying process,” explained Dr. Zhang, lead author of this study. “Our study shows that removing fried products from your diet as soon as you are of childbearing age offers real health benefits for expectant mothers,” he insists.
Gestational diabetes usually develops during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. It is often associated with significant weight gain. For the mother-to-be, this increases the risk premature birth and this often involves a cesarean delivery. For babies, the main consequence of gestational diabetes is macrosomia, that is, a heavy birth weight.
