New research raises the intriguing possibility that eating more
fruit during pregnancy could boost the intelligence of a normal, healthy baby.
Researchers
found that each additional daily serving of fruit that pregnant women consumed
corresponded with an increase in cognitive scores for their children one year
after birth. The study, at the University of Alberta, analyzed data from 688
children in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development, or Child,
study.
The findings published in the
journal EBioMedicine in April, are preliminary and best seen as a suggestion
for future studies on mammals and in randomized human trials, experts say.
Still, the study is striking. Only one other food—fish—has been linked to
enhanced cognitive development in normal, healthy offspring, experts say.
Piush Mandhane, an associate professor of pediatrics at
University of Alberta and one of the two senior authors of the paper, says he
was surprised by the strength of the findings. He sought out a colleague to
double check the results using fruit flies, which are often used in experiments
to model learning and memory. Those tests came up with similar results.
Still,
“we don’t want pregnant women to go out and eat a tremendous amount of fruit,”
Dr. Mandhane cautions. “It’s a single study, and we haven’t looked at the
health effects of increased fruit intake.”
Consuming
large amounts of fruit during pregnancy could raise blood sugar, a particular
problem for women with gestational diabetes, or lead to increased weight gain,
experts say.
Many
people eat less fruit than is recommended. Half of the pregnant women surveyed
for the study didn’t meet the U.S. government’s guidelines of 1½ to 2 cups of
fruit a day. Dr. Mandhane says his advice to pregnant women “is to meet the recommendations.
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