High-gluten pregnancy diet linked to diabetes risk

Women who have a diet high in gluten during pregnancy could increase the risk of their children suffering from type 1 diabetes, a study suggests.

Experts said previous studies on animals have shown a gluten-free maternal diet during pregnancy almost “completely prevented” type 1 diabetes among offspring.

The international researchers set out to find whether a similar effect was seen in humans.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), examined data on more than 63,000 pregnant women from Denmark.

The women, who were enrolled into the Danish National Birth Cohort between January 1996 and October 2002, completed a food frequency questionnaire when they were 25 weeks pregnant, which measured the amount of gluten they consumed.

The participants were followed until 2016 to track the development of type 1 diabetes among their children.

The authors concluded that the risk of type 1 diabetes in children “increased proportionately” with maternal gluten intake.

Children of women with the highest gluten intake had double the risk compared with those with the lowest intake.

The authors said more evidence is needed before recommendations to change pregnant women’s diets are made.