The perfect pregnancy diet – according to science

It can be frustrating when, as a grown woman, you enter a period of your life when it is apparently OKto be issued instructions as if you were a child. Sit down; don’t lift this; bend with your knees, don’t eat that. But pregnancy is a time of great change, and none more so than how you fuel your body.

Research out this week has found that women who eat oily fish in the second half of pregnancy are more likely to give birth to stronger children, as scientists find increasingly more links between maternal diet and long term health outcomes for the baby. 

The dizzying array of advice can be confusing, Emma Cannon, fertility women’s health expert and a speaker at The Fertility Show London, says. “One of the problems we’re seeing is that for a long time doctors were slow to acknowledge the importance of diet during pregnancy, apart from basic guidelines. While on social media there is lots of dietary advice being proffered by unqualified people, and it’s creating a lot of confusion.”

But science is catching up. A slew of recent studies show that along with general rules of healthy eating – eat vegetables, grains and pulses, stop smoking, cut down drinking, and avoid processed foods – there are additional positive steps you can make to your diet during pregnancy to ensure that your baby gets the healthiest start.

Embrace all food groups

While it is a myth that you’re eating for two during pregnancy, it’s also not the time to restrict the range of foods you eat. “One of the main problems I see with women coming to my clinic is cutting out whole food groups,” Cannon says. Common victims are dairy and carbs. But a recent paper summarising nearly 500 studies on the effect of eating dairy during pregnancy found that nearly all recommended including some milk and dairy in the maternal diet as a source of protein and other valuable nutrients. 

Also, a study published earlier this year by researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that pregnant women should embrace carbs, to prevent neural tube birth defects.

Eat oily fish

As well as producing strong babies, a separate study earlier this year in the journal PLoS Medicine found that eating oily fish, which includes salmon, mackerel, sardines, trout and herring, reduced the chances of egg allergies in children by up to 30pc. 

“The role of essential fatty acids is also really important in foetal brain development,” Cannon says. She says that there are some concerns around mercury in fish, “but actually when we looked at the studies, the benefit of the fatty acids outweighed any potential harmful effects of mercury.”

She recommends for those worried to opt for smaller fish, such as sardines, mackerel and anchovies.

Take a probiotic

The importance of gut health is being linked to wide range of aspects of mental and physical wellbeing, including pregnancy. New research found that taking a daily probiotic can reduce the baby’s chances of getting eczema by 22 per cent. Dr Carrie Ruxton, from the Health and Food Supplements Information Service (hsis.org) says that women should take a daily probiotic supplement from 36-38 weeks pregnancy, and during the first three to six months of breastfeeding.

Include folic acid

As well as reducing the chance of certain birth defects, a long term study by the University of Granada found that women who take folic acid for the first three months of pregnancy can reduce the likelihood of behavioural problems during early childhood. The NHS advises women to take a 400 microgram supplement of folic acid every day while you're trying to get pregnant, and up until the end of the first trimester.

Choose naturally sweet foods

First and third trimester exhaustion might leave you reaching for a sugary pick me up (or sweet cravings appearing for the first time). “A little bit of sweetness isn’t bad,” Cannon reassures, “but it’s important to include it in our diet with foods that are naturally sweet, like sweet potato. The problem is all the refined sugars and hidden sugars in our diet, and low fat foods that are laced with sugar. Those are the things to cut back on.”

Indeed, a report in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that pregnant women who consume higher amounts of sugar have children with lower cognition, particularly in learning and memory.

Cannon adds that “drinking your sugars is the worst thing to do.” A study in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that children whose mothers drank one diet beverage a day were more likely to be overweight or obese at age seven.

Eggs are in

The pleasure of a dippy egg was once denied to pregnant women – but it is no more. Eggs stamped with a Red Lion mark are now deemed to have a very low risk of salmonella, and thus safe to eat.

As well as being good sources of protein, eggs are rich sources of selenium, iron, and vitamin D. On which subject...

Up your vitamin D

After the hottest summer on record, we might have forgotten that UK winters are usually drab affairs. A recent study published in Paediatric Obesity has shown that vitamin D deficiency during early pregnancy can increase the chance of creating overweight children.

Public Health England recommend that everyone, including pregnant women, take vitamin D supplements. “Pregnant women have increased vitamin d requirements, so 3000iu of vitamin D a day is considered an optimal dosage for protecting mum and baby,” according to Andrew Thomas, founder and managing director of natural health company, BetterYou.

Fathers aren’t off the hook entirely: research found that a father's vitamin D intake pre-conception is associated with his child's height and weight at five years old.

Emma Cannon will be speaking at The Fertility Show London 3-4 November fertilityshow.co.uk/london