A diet rich in whole grains may provide benefits for pregnant women due to whole grains’ high nutritional value and dietary fiber content.
To study the associations of whole-grain consumption, as ...well as the plasma alkylresorcinol concentration, a whole-grain consumption biomarker, in early pregnancy with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) diagnoses.
Subjects were women from the prospective study Pregnant Women in Iceland II (PREWICE II; n = 853) who attended their ultrasound appointment in gestational weeks 11–14 during the period from October 2017 to March 2018. During that visit, whole-grain consumption was estimated using a diet screening questionnaire, and blood samples were collected for analysis of plasma alkylresorcinols (ARs). Information on GDM diagnoses was later extracted from medical records. Multivariate log-binomial regression was used to evaluate the association of dietary whole-grain and AR concentrations with GDM.
In total, 14.9% of the women adhered to the national food-based dietary guidelines (n = 127), which recommend 2 portions of whole grains daily. GDM was diagnosed in 127 women (14.9%). The frequency of whole-grain consumption was lower in women who were later diagnosed with GDM compared to the women without GDM (median, 5 times/week vs. 6 times/week, respectively; P = 0.02). This difference was reflected in the lower median concentration of total AR in women diagnosed with GDM (163 nmol/L vs. 209 nmol/L, respectively; P < 0.01). The quartile with the highest concentrations of AR had a RR of 0.50 (95% CI: 0.27–0.90) of being diagnosed with GDM, in comparison to the lowest quartile. There was a significant dose response in the GDM risk with higher AR levels.
We found that a higher consumption of whole grains, reflected both by reported consumption according to the FFQ and AR biomarkers, was associated with a decreased risk of receiving a GDM diagnosis.
Excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) is a risk factor for several adverse pregnancy outcomes, including macrosomia. Diet is one of the few modifiable risk factors identified. However, most dietary ...assessment methods are impractical for use in maternal care. This study evaluated whether a short dietary screening questionnaire could be used as a predictor of excessive GWG in a cohort of Icelandic women. The dietary data were collected in gestational weeks 11–14, using a 40‐item food frequency screening questionnaire. The dietary data were transformed into 13 predefined dietary risk factors for an inadequate diet. Stepwise backward elimination was used to identify a reduced set of factors that best predicted excessive GWG. This set of variables was then used to calculate a combined dietary risk score (range 0–5). Information regarding outcomes, GWG (n = 1,326) and birth weight (n = 1,651), was extracted from maternal hospital records. In total, 36% had excessive GWG (Icelandic criteria), and 5% of infants were macrosomic (≥4,500 g). A high dietary risk score (characterized by a nonvaried diet, nonadequate frequency of consumption of fruits/vegetables, dairy, and whole grain intake, and excessive intake of sugar/artificially sweetened beverages and dairy) was associated with a higher risk of excessive GWG. Women with a high (≥4) versus low (≤2) risk score had higher risk of excessive GWG (relative risk = 1.23, 95% confidence interval, CI 1.002, 1.50) and higher odds of delivering a macrosomic offspring (odds ratio = 2.20, 95% CI 1.14, 4.25). The results indicate that asking simple questions about women's dietary intake early in pregnancy could identify women who should be prioritized for further dietary counselling and support.
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