Stop Eating Too Much Oily Food during Pregnancy to Prevent Diabetes: Study

Eating too much oily and fried food during pregnancy triggers risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDS), according to a study.

Most expectant mothers easily give in to their cravings for junk food and fatty eatables that ultimately makes them gain weight during pregnancy. But, researchers say listening to your pregnancy brain and bingeing on oily food may increase risk of diabetes.  Experts from renowned research bodies like Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development examined 21,079 pregnancy records and 15,027 women aged between 25 and 44 who had enrolled in a health study during 1989. The participants' health status, food intake, habits like drinking and smoking and use of medications were recorded to assess their risk rate for gestational diabetes. The survey also grouped frequency of fried food consumption ina  week as high, moderate and low.

The finding revealed the odds for gestational diabetes for women whose weekly consumption of fried junk was one to three times, four to six times and seven or more times compared with those who consumed less than once per week were 1.13, 1.31, and 2.18 respectively. These observations remained uniform regardless of the subjects' BMI levels.

"Frying deteriorates oils through the processes of oxidation and hydrogenation, leading to an increase in the absorption of oil degradation products by the foods being fried, and also a loss of unsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic and linolenic acids and an increase in the corresponding trans fatty acids such as trans-linoleic acids and trans-linolenic acids. It also results in significantly higher levels of dietary advanced glycation end products (AGEs), the derivatives of glucose-protein or glucose-lipid interactions," write the authors in the study.

"AGEs have been implicated in insulin resistance, pancreatic beta-cell damage, and diabetes, partly because they promote oxidative stress and inflammation. We observed that frequent fried food consumption was significantly and positively associated with the risk of incident GDM in a prospective cohort study. Our study indicates potential benefits of limiting fried food consumption in the prevention of GDM in women of reproductive age," said Cuilin Zhang, study author and researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, reports the Daily Mail.

More information is available online in the journal Diabetologia.