Not-so-sweet news
Study suggests a link between diet drinks during pregnancy and childhood obesity
NEW American research reveals that children born to pregnant women with gestational diabetes who drink at least one “diet” drink per day are 60 per cent more likely to have a high birth weight compared to children born to women who never drink artificially sweetened drinks. At age 7, children born to mothers with gestational diabetes who drink at least one artificially sweetened drink per day are almost twice as likely to be overweight or obese, according to research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of the National Institutes of Health in the US. Researchers studied data collected between 1996 and 2002 for 918 pregnant women with gestational diabetes in Denmark. At the 25th week of pregnancy, the women completed a detailed questionnaire about the foods they ate. Gestational diabetes is a condition that sees women develop high blood sugar levels during pregnancy. It affects around 10 per cent of women in the US. The condition carries risks for the mother and child (excessive weight and growth). According to the study, 50 per cent of participants drank artificially sweetened drinks and nine per cent reported drinking them every day. The children of the daily consumers were 60 per cent more likely to have a high birth weight, compared to children born to women who never drank sweetened drinks.
ONLY WATER Unsurprisingly, at age 7, children were less likely to be obese if their mother drank only water. However, the study showed little advantage in drinking artificially sweetened drinks over sugar-sweetened drinks. At age 7, children born to both groups were equally likely to be overweight or obese. Previous studies have shown that drinking diet drinks, whether pregnant or not, could lead to weight gain, as they are thought to stimulate appetite and maintain the body in an addiction to sugar. People who are overweight and obese may notably eat more when they consume artificially sweetened drinks, according to a study published in 2014 in the American Journal of Public Health. Consuming “diet” drinks could also encourage people to allow themselves to eat more, ranging on average from 88 calories per day for overweight people to 194 calories per day for obese people. The study is published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. AFP Relaxnews