The Mediterranean Diet May Prevent Gestational Diabetes

A healthy eating style may prevent common pregnancy-associated problems. In fact, the Mediterranean diet can prevent gestational diabetes and excess weight gain.

Numerous studies have documented the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, including lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes and potentially even preventing cognitive decline as your age. For women, eating the Mediterranean way can lower the odds of heart disease by 25 percent and more, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

The diet may also prevent gestational diabetes and excessive weight gain in pregnant women.

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Gestational diabetes can be serious

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that occurs only during pregnancy. The condition, marked by high blood glucose (blood sugar), often has no symptoms or only mild ones, such as having to urinate more often or feeling thirsty all the time. If you develop gestational diabetes, it’s important to work with your doctor to keep your blood sugar under control and even take insulin if you need it.

You are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes after your pregnancy if you had gestational diabetes. The condition also raises the risk your baby will be born too early or be unusually large, making delivery difficult.

Your infant may be born with low blood sugar requiring treatment, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Preventing gestational diabetes is far better than developing it in the first place. Genes and being overweight can play a role in the condition. Keeping your weight under control and getting regular physical activity (under your obstetrician’s supervision) may help lower your risk.

How the Mediterranean diet can help pregnant women

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Warwick studied 1,252 women of different ethnic groups who were already at increased risk for gestational diabetes due to pre-existing factors, including chronic high blood pressure and obesity.

All of them received standard medical care, but half of the women were given standard dietary recommendations for pregnant women while the rest were placed on a Mediterranean-style meal plan.

The Mediterranean diet was rich in nuts, extra virgin olive oil, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. The diet also included fish, small-to-moderate servings of poultry and dairy products, a small amount of red meat, and little-to-no processed meat.

Sugary drinks, fast food, and food heavy with animal fat were not part of the eating plan.

The results of the study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, found the pregnant women sticking to the Mediterranean diet had a 35 percent lower risk of developing gestational diabetes compared to the pregnant women on a standard prenatal diet.

Finding the Mediterranean diet prevents diabetes in a significant number of women at high risk for the condition was especially important. What’s more, the expectant moms eating the Mediterranean way gained less weight (about three pounds less) than the pregnant women on routine diets. They also reported feeling less bloated and experienced a better overall quality of life than those in the control group.

"This is the first study to show that pregnant women at high risk of complications may benefit from a Mediterranean-style diet to reduce their weight gain and risk of gestational diabetes,” said Shakila Thangaratinam, PhD, professor in maternal and perinatal health at the University of Birmingham, in the UK.

“Women who are at risk of gestational diabetes should be encouraged to take action early on in pregnancy, by consuming more nuts, olive oil, fruit, and unrefined grains, while reducing their intake of animal fats and sugar," she added.

The Mediterranean diet can benefit pregnant women

Previous studies have documented benefits of the Mediterranean eating style on women’s heart health.

A study published in JAMA (the Journal of the American Heart Association), for example, found that women who stick to a Mediterranean diet have less inflammation, better glucose metabolism, less insulin resistance, and a healthier body mass index, a measurement of body fat.

While those are all factors linked to less heart disease risk, they also lower your odds of type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.

There’s no guarantee the diet prevents gestational diabetes in all pregnant women, but it is a healthy way for expectant moms to eat, and it can keep weight in a healthy range. If you are pregnant, or hoping to become pregnant, talk to your doctor about the best diet plan for you.

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