BBC High meat diet 'can stress baby'

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>

> * High meat diet 'can stress baby' *

>Experts warn against high protein, low

>carbohydrate diets in pregnancy amid concern

>over stressed babies.

>Full story:

>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/health/4864488.stm

>

High meat diet 'can stress baby'

High protein, low carbohydrate diets should be

avoided during pregnancy as they can lead to more

stressed offspring, research suggests.

 

A UK team followed a group of 86 children born

in 1967-8 to mothers who were told to eat a pound

of red meat a day to avoid pregnancy

complications.

 

The study found the more meat the mother ate,

the higher the levels of stress hormone cortisol

in the child.

 

The research is being presented at a medical conference in Glasgow.

 

The subjects, now in their 30s, were asked by

the teams from the Universities of Edinburgh and

Southampton to perform a series of stressful

tasks including public speaking and mental

arithmetic.

 

Their blood pressure levels were recorded and

cortisol levels were measured before and after

each task.

 

Dr Rebecca Reynolds, who led the study, said it

was designed to see how events in pregnancy could

affect the health of offspring in later life.

 

" We are very interested in foetal programming

which says how we are born as a baby sets us up

for future health. "

 

The women from Motherwell, Lanarkshire, included

in the study were advised by an obstetrician to

eat very high levels of meat and low levels of

carbohydrate to avoid a condition called

pre-eclampsia associated with high blood pressure

in pregnancy, she said.

 

'Not healthy'

 

" This study adds to the increasing evidence of

the importance of the maternal diet and suggests

that one of the ways in which it can have these

long term effects is by permanently altering

stress hormone levels.

 

" We don't know why this occurs - it may be that

the baby is put under stress during pregnancy

which causes irreversibly high levels of

cortisol. "

 

But she added: " Given the recent popularity of

low-carbohydrate/high protein diets, such as the

Atkins diet, this data also suggests that these

diets should be avoided during pregnancy. "

 

Dr Doris Campbell, reader in obstetrics and

gynaecology at Aberdeen University, said it was

probably not a good idea to mess around with diet

during pregnancy.

 

She said that energy restriction was not good

during pregnancy and that most pregnant women

simply ate to appetite - which tended to grow to

compensate for increased tiredness.

 

" These sorts of high protein, low carbohydrate

diets are not particularly healthy in general,

but I certainly would not advocate them in

pregnancy, " she added.

 

The research is being presented at the European

Congress of Endocrinology in Glasgow on Tuesday.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4864488.stm

 

Published: 2006/04/02 23:04:40 GMT

 

© BBC MMVI

 

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