Abstract
Maternal diet during pregnancy can influence fetal growth; however, the available evidence is controversial. We aimed to assess whether maternal diet of Japanese women in mid-pregnancy can affect their offspring's birth size via collection of questionnaire and medical record data. The studied sample was a large cohort of paired mothers and their singleton offspring (n 78 793) from fifteen areas all over Japan who participated in the Japan Environment and Children's Study. The mid-pregnancy intakes of total energy, macronutrients and vitamins were lower than the recommended intakes for pregnant Japanese women. Maternal total energy intake was positively associated with the offspring's birth weight; there was a 10-g mean difference in the offspring's birth weight of mothers in the lowest (3026 g) v. highest (3036 g) quartiles of energy intake. Carbohydrate intake was positively associated with the offspring's birth length (mean difference of 0·7 cm) and inversely associated with the ponderal index (mean difference of 0·8 g/cm3). Offspring of mothers in the highest v. lowest quartiles of total dietary fibre intake were on average 9 g heavier and had 0·3 cm longer birth length and 0·2 cm longer head circumference. The highest in reference to lowest intake quartile of vitamin C was associated with 13 g and 0·7 cm mean differences in the offspring's birth weight and length, respectively. Several other associations were evident for maternal intakes of vitamins and the offspring's birth size. In conclusion, maternal dietary intakes of energy, dietary fibre, carbohydrate and vitamins during pregnancy were associated with the offspring's birth size.
Highlights
Optimising maternal dietary balance could be a novel appropriate approach for potential improvement of offspring’s body composition[1,2]
Previous studies that showed the association between dietary macronutrient intakes during pregnancy and birth size were inconsistent in their conclusions
Maternal diet and offspring birth size size were inversely associated with carbohydrate intake and positively associated with protein intake in early pregnancy[3,15,16]
Summary
Optimising maternal dietary balance could be a novel appropriate approach for potential improvement of offspring’s body composition[1,2]. Previous studies that showed the association between dietary macronutrient intakes during pregnancy and birth size were inconsistent in their conclusions. Energy content[11,12,13] and macronutrient intakes during pregnancy[4,12,13,14] were frequently reported to be not associated with the estimated fetal body weight or birth weight. Maternal diet and offspring birth size size were inversely associated with carbohydrate intake and positively associated with protein intake in early pregnancy[3,15,16]. Folic acid intake during pregnancy can efficiently prevent neural tube defects of the offspring[18], while maternal intakes of n-3 long-chain PUFA, folic acid and vitamin D have shown potential effects on the offspring’s birth weight[17,18,19,20]
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