Eating a Mediterranean diet during pregnancy reduces anxiety and improves sleep quality
A study shows that pregnant women who follow the Mediterranean diet present a reduction of between 25 and 28% in anxiety levels, while having better well-being and sleep quality.
The study was led by researchers from the Hospital Clínic and the August Pi Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), with support from the “la Caixa” Foundation.
From previous studies, the benefits in the general population of the Mediterranean diet, which promotes the intake of plant foods rich in antioxidants (fruits, vegetables, extra virgin olive oil and whole grains), are widely known, but this is the first trial that evaluates it and demonstrates it in pregnant women.
Anxiety and stress disorders are becoming more frequent in pregnant women and it is estimated that 1 in 5 future mothers may suffer from them.
The new study is a second part of the IMPACT project, which has already shown that the Mediterranean diet or mindfulness (meditative techniques to relax) during pregnancy reduce the risk of having a low-weight baby by up to a third.
Now the researchers have focused on anxiety and have studied 1,221 high-risk pregnant women, randomly distributed into different groups at 19-23 weeks of gestation.
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The first group was monitored by nutritionists, who encouraged the pregnant women to increase their intake of cereals (5 servings a day), vegetables and dairy products (3 servings a day), fresh fruit (2 servings a day), legumes, nuts , fish and white meat (3 servings a week), as well as the use of olive oil for cooking and dressing.
The second group, on the other hand, received usual care during a pregnancy, without special intervention in nutrition.
According to data published in the journal Nutrients, the intervention based on the Mediterranean diet reduced maternal anxiety and stress by between 25 and 28%, in addition to improving the well-being and sleep quality of pregnant women, if compared to the data with the group that received no intervention.
The researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing the stress questionnaires the participants answered and measuring the levels of stress-related metabolites, such as cortisol and cortisone, in urine samples.
The study also concludes that the beneficial effects appear shortly after the start of the intervention to follow the Mediterranean diet.
The project has received funding from the La Caixa Foundation, the Cerebra Foundation for the Brain Injured Child, the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR), the Carlos III Health Institute, the University of Barcelona and the Research Center Biomedical Network on Rare Diseases (CIBERER) Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN) and Mental Health (CIBERSAM).