Low-Carb for Baby?

For overweight women, a weakness for sugary, starchy foods may bring trouble that goes beyond the risk to their own health. New research has found that heavy women who eat lots of these foods, which cause blood sugar to spike, are more likely to have a baby with birth defects.

Earlier studies had shown that the babies of diabetic moms are at higher risk for neural tube defects like spina bifida. But Gary Shaw, research director at the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program in Berk-eley, wondered about the growing number of women who don’t have full-blown diabetes but whose blood sugar tends to run high. So he questioned 916 women about what they had eaten around the time they conceived. Those who were overweight and favored foods high in sugar and refined carbohydrates, such as soft drinks and white bread, were much more likely to have babies with neural tube defects.

Should overweight moms-to-be steer clear of these foods? Shaw’s not ready to go there yet. “Eating a balanced diet and taking a vitamin supplement with folic acid is the best way to prevent neural tube defects,” he says. But eating more veggies and less candy certainly can’t hurt.

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