Pregnant women crave for soft pillows, comfortable flat shoes and sweets. And we all know that sweets aren’t just craved by pregnant women.
We are all guilty of eating all the sweet things we can find. It’s nothing unusual. However, consuming too much sugary foods and drink while pregnant can be very risky for your baby.
Study says that sugar may be linked to allergies in children, specifically when they were still inside their mothers’ wombs.
According to research, expectant moms who tend to consume too much sugar increase their children’s risk of developing allergies or allergic asthma.
The study focused on allergies that show skin and respiratory symptoms such as cats and grass.
Asthma is one of the common diseases among children. According to the World Health Organization, the number of children suffering from asthma or those who are sensitive to allergens is going to rise up to 400 million in the next eight years.
More children are reportedly suffering from other forms of respiratory allergies because of the change in diet.
Throughout the years, majority of the food and drinks that we can buy in the supermarket have high sugar level without even realizing it.
“Free sugars” can be found in honey, unsweetened fruit juices and those foods that we eat in some restaurants or even at home cooked by members of our family.
And because of the studies conducted regarding sugar and allergies, those from the medical world highly encourage pregnant women to have a good maternal diet.
The prenatal period is actually essential in order to determine risks of asthma and other allergies in childhood.
Annabelle Berard, a postdoctoral fellow at Queen Mary’s Centre for Primary Care and Public Health Blizard Institute, together with her colleagues did a thorough research regarding the possible relationship of children’s allergies and then pregnant mothers’ diet.
First, they asked women about their maternal diet and they were able to calculate the amount of free sugars taken through the answers from the questionnaires provided.
Then, they analyzed how the mothers’ sugar intake compared with children who were diagnosed of asthma and respiratory allergies starting at the age of 7.
According to the source: “Nearly 62% of the children did not have any allergic conditions, but the remaining children had one or more maladies or symptoms.
About 22% of the kids had a common allergy, 16% had eczema, 12% had asthma, 11% had wheezing with whistling, and 9% had hay fever, the researchers found.”
The researchers determined that the children with mothers who had the highest sugar consumption had 38% higher risk of having allergy. They had a 73% risk of allergy diagnosis and being allergic to two or more allergens.
Such children had a 101% increased asthma risk as compared to those who were born to mothers who had the lowest sugar intake.
The findings of the study do not automatically signify and conclude that all forms of allergies are connected to eating sugar while pregnant despite the fact that the data results sound convincing.
The researchers admitted that there are still issues that they need to be scrutinized in order to further improve the study and determine if there is indeed a relationship between sweets and allergies.
There are different factors that help develop allergy and asthma such as genes and the kind of environment we live in, exposing us to pollutants.
And while the link is yet to be proven, it’s still important for women to maintain a good maternal diet while pregnant. They should eat healthy and be responsible with the food and drinks that they consume all throughout their pregnancy.
