Pregnant Women Should Avoid Low Carbohydrate Diets

Low carbohydrate intake was associated with pregnant women having children with neural tube defects.Therefore, pregnant women need to avoid a diet low in carbs.

Pregnant women should avoid low carbohydrate diet, as it can increase the risk of birth defects in babies such as neural tube birth defects, reveals a new study.

The study published in the journal Birth Defects Research found that women with low carbohydrate intake are 30 percent more likely to have babies with neural tube defects, such as spina bifida (malformations of the spine and spinal cord) and anencephaly (absence of major portions of the brain and skull), that can lead to lifelong disability and infant death, when compared with women who do not restrict their carbohydrate intake.

Low Carbohydrate Diet - Principle - Food Manual - Weight Loss - Advantages - Disadvantages - FAQs
A low carbohydrate diet helps achieve weight loss. It is a diet plan that restricts the carbohydrate intake.

‘Adequate amounts of folic acid needs to be taken by pregnant women, as it helps reduce the risk of neural tube defects.’

This is the first study to evaluate the relationship between low carbohydrate intake and having children with neural tube defects. The new study was from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"We already know that maternal diet before and during early pregnancy plays a significant role in fetal development. What is new about this study is its suggestion that low carbohydrate intake could increase the risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect by 30 percent. This is concerning because low carbohydrate diets are fairly popular," said Tania Desrosiers, PhD, MPH, and research assistant professor of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, who led the study.

Tania Desrosiers also said, "This finding reinforces the importance for women who may become pregnant to talk to their health care provider about any special diets or eating behaviors they routinely practice."

Atkins Diet - Basic Principle Stages Foodmanual Advantage Disadvantage FAQs
Atkins diet is a low carbohydrate diet and aids in weight loss. It was developed by Robert Atkins.

Folic acid is an essential nutrient that minimizes the risk of neural tube defects. More than 20 percent of women in the U.S. have blood folate concentrations below the recommended level to reduce risk of neural tube defects.

For this reason, in 1998 the Food and Drug Administration began requiring that folic acid be added to enriched grain products. Desrosiers and her study collaborators found that dietary intake of folic acid among women with restricted carbohydrate intake was less than half of other women.

Birth Defects - Structural Defects - Neural Tube Defects - Hypospadias
A structural birth defect means that a specific body part is missing or mal-formed during the embryonic development.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all women who may become pregnant take a daily multivitamin with at least 400 micrograms of folic acid every day before and during pregnancy.

However, because almost half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, many women do not initiate folic acid supplementation until later in pregnancy, after a neural tube defect may have occurred. This makes fortified foods an important source of folic acid for women who may become pregnant.

Neural Tube Defects - Types, Causes, Diagnosis & Treatment
Neural tube defects are abnormalities that affect the brain, spine and spinal column of the developing embryo and appear during the first month of pregnancy.

Source-Eurekalert