90 Percent Pregnant Females Might Not Be Getting Sufficient Nutrients from Diet: Study Reveals
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It's generally estimated that around 10% of pregnant people struggle to meet their nutritional needs -- but the real number could be far higher, according to new research from Stevens Institute of Technology.
According to a recent study published in The Journal of Nutrition, over 90% of pregnant individuals are potentially failing to get enough iron, vitamin D, or vitamin E from the food they eat, while over one-third could be short of calcium, vitamin C, and vitamin A. Troublingly, almost two-thirds of pregnant people were also found to be getting insufficient dietary folate -- a critical nutrient that helps prevent birth defects in the baby's brain and spine.
The Stevens team asked pregnant people to take before-and-after photos of everything they ate over two 14-day periods. Experts then reviewed the photos to assess the amount of food actually eaten and determine the nutrients consumed during each meal.
That's a far more accurate approach, because people are notoriously bad at estimating portion size or accurately reporting what they've eaten, Dr. Kleinberg explains. A photo-based approach is also much less laborious for pregnant people, making it easy to collect data over a period of weeks instead of just a few days.
Using food photos also allowed the Stevens team to accurately track the exact timing of meals and snacks, and to explore the way that patterns of eating behavior correlated with total energy and nutrient intake. When pregnant people ate later in the day, the data shows, they were likely to consume significantly more total calories -- potentially an important finding as researchers explore connections between eating behaviors and health problems such as gestational diabetes.
Reference: https://www.stevens.edu/news/pregnant-people-might-not-be-getting-the-nutrients-they-need-according-to
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