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Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3232764.stm
Sugary foods 'birth defect risk' Eating sugary or highly processed foods during pregnancy may increase the risk of birth defects, research suggests. US researchers compared the diet of 454 mothers of children with neural tube defects like spina bifida, with 462 mothers who had healthy babies. They found the risk of defects doubled in women who ate lots of foods which give a quick sugar hit - and among obese women it quadrupled. The research is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The researchers, from the University of California, focused on foods that have a high glyacemic index (GI). This means that they release large amounts glucose into the blood very quickly, giving a sugar rush, followed by a low. Examples of high GI foods include corn flakes, potatoes, cooked carrots, white bread, white rice, chocolate biscuits, honey and some soft drinks. Scientists believe that the sudden release of large amounts of glucose may interfere with the development of babies in the womb - in particular the formation of the tube of bone around the spinal column. Low GI foods, which give a slow release of glucose, include green vegetables, fresh fruit, wholegrain cereals and whole-wheat pasta. Andrew Russell, chief executive of the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, told BBC News Online that the research should be treated with caution until further studies backed up the findings. He said: "Neural tube defect research is very complicated, and theories around about the significance of sugars, proteins, vitamins and other micronutrients. "The idea that a sugar surge in the maternal blood could cause spina bifida, while not impossible, would need quite a lot of corroboration because there are so many other things that feed into the metabolic process which controls development and closure of the spinal column. "I would not feel at all comfortable about telling a mother that because she ate a cream bun in the early stages of pregnancy she was responsible for her child's lifelong disability." Mr Russell said the vitamin Folic Acid had been shown to play a crucial role in the this process. Research from Oxford Brookes University, published earlier this month, found children who eat a high-GI breakfast cereal get hungrier before lunchtime, and are more likely to snack and eat more calories overall. A spokesman for Kellogg's, which makes corn flakes and other high GI cereals, said: "The science is relatively new and in some areas controversial. "There is clear evidence that foods such as Kellogg's Corn Flakes, which are high in carbohydrate and low in fat, play an important role in helping people reduce fat intakes, maintain weight levels and possibly help their bodies to better control blood sugar levels." |
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Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'
On 11/24/2003 12:01 PM, Diarmid Logan wrote: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3232764.stm Sugary foods 'birth defect risk' It sounds like these people may not have been eating a balanced diet. Where they getting plenty of folic acid? Did they take a multivitin? The article doesn't really provide enough information to know what is going on here. -- jmk in NC |
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Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'
jmk wrote in message ...
On 11/24/2003 12:01 PM, Diarmid Logan wrote: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3232764.stm Sugary foods 'birth defect risk' It sounds like these people may not have been eating a balanced diet. duh! Where they getting plenty of folic acid? Did they take a multivitin? The article doesn't really provide enough information to know what is going on here. What's going on is that sugar is a slow poison. Just like the other highly refined carbs. TC |
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Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'
Once upon a time, our fellow tcomeau
rambled on about " Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'." Our champion De-Medicalizing in sci.med.nutrition retorts, thusly ... Where they getting plenty of folic acid? Did they take a multivitin? The article doesn't really provide enough information to know what is going on here. What's going on is that sugar is a slow poison. Just like the other highly refined carbs. Ha, ... Hah, Ha! You truly are an idiot. Diet is not a matter of a list of acceptable foods, it is a matter of acceptable food processing. Just thought that you might want to know. The modern junk food diet has a number of things wrong with it. It wont even provide you with minimal RDA values for many nutrients. High Sugar content is a marker for Junk Food. -- John Gohde, Achieving good Nutrition is an Art, NOT a Science! The nutrition of eating a healthy diet is the foundation of the biopsychosocial model of natural health. Weighing in at 17 webpages, Nutrition (http://www.Food.NaturalHealthPerspective.com/) is now the unofficial FAQ for sci.med.nutrition by default. |
#5
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Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'
John 'the Man' wrote in message . ..
Once upon a time, our fellow tcomeau rambled on about " Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'." Our champion De-Medicalizing in sci.med.nutrition retorts, thusly ... Where they getting plenty of folic acid? Did they take a multivitin? The article doesn't really provide enough information to know what is going on here. What's going on is that sugar is a slow poison. Just like the other highly refined carbs. Ha, ... Hah, Ha! You truly are an idiot. Diet is not a matter of a list of acceptable foods, it is a matter of acceptable food processing. Just thought that you might want to know. The modern junk food diet has a number of things wrong with it. It wont even provide you with minimal RDA values for many nutrients. High Sugar content is a marker for Junk Food. What is your POINT?! Do you have one? Or are you happy with simply throwing out idiotic nonsensical little proclamations? "Diet is not a matter of a list of acceptable foods, it is a matter of acceptable food processing." What the f**k is that supposed to mean? "The modern junk food diet has a number of things wrong with it. It wont even provide you with minimal RDA values for many nutrients." No ****, sherlock. More useless nonsense. "High Sugar content is a marker for Junk Food." Another great insight. Not! You know what your problem is? You Are full of endless trite semantical variations of the same nonsense to try to show that you have some sort of knowledge base to draw from when, in fact, every time you open your gaping maw you prove to all that you are an insignficant little man without a clue. TC |
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Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'
Once upon a time, our fellow tcomeau
rambled on about " Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'." Our champion De-Medicalizing in sci.med.nutrition retorts, thusly ... What is your POINT?! Do you have one? YES TC is truly an idiot. Just thought that you might want to know. Ha, ... Hah, Ha! |
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Sugary foods 'birth defect risk'
(Diarmid Logan) wrote in message . com...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3232764.stm Sugary foods 'birth defect risk' Eating sugary or highly processed foods during pregnancy may increase the risk of birth defects, research suggests. Follow-up: http://www.connected.telegraph.co.uk...26/ixconn.html Spina bifida in babies is linked with cornflakes and white bread By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent (Filed: 23/11/2003) Pregnant women who eat sugary or highly processed food such as white bread and cornflakes face double the risk of having malformed babies, according to new research. Scientists made the discovery after comparing the diets of mothers whose babies had so-called neural tube defects such as spina bifida with those of mothers with normal babies. The study, involving almost 1,000 women, found that the risk of such birth defects was substantially greater among those who consumed higher levels of sugar and the highly refined carbohydrates found in potatoes, white bread and rice and many popular breakfast cereals. University researchers at the California birth defects monitoring programme in Berkeley said such foods may double the risk of neural tube defects in unborn babies, increasing to a fourfold risk among mothers with obesity. The new findings, reported in the latest issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, add to the growing concern over food products with a high glycemic index (GI). By producing a surge in blood sugar, the foods trigger the release of a large amount of insulin, high levels of which have already been implicated in birth defects. Dr Ross Welch, a specialist in foetal medicine at Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral, Cheshire, said: "Assuming these results have a sound statistical basis, then this is important. The question we have to ask is what do we do about it?" Most mothers did not realise the crucial importance of diet in the first days of pregnancy, Dr Welch said. "High blood sugar levels have already been linked with foetal abnormality in diabetes, and this new research seems to be in line with that." He added: "Preconceptual folic acid is, however, still likely to be more important." The findings come amid mounting evidence that high GI foods may pose a significant threat to health. Earlier this year, high GI diets were linked to 50 to 80 per cent increases in risk of oral and ovarian cancer by researchers at the Centre for Cancer Research in Aviano, Italy. Most concern focuses on the role of such food in obesity. Research published earlier this month by scientists at Oxford Brookes University found that children given a high GI breakfast of cornflakes, Coco-Pops or white bread consumed many more calories at lunchtime than those given a low-GI alternative, such as bran flakes or porridge. Professor Jeya Henry, who led the research, said that the results supported evidence that high-GI foods boost appetite while cutting satiety - the "full" feeling that normally follows a meal. Both are thought to play important roles in developing obesity. "It is time we got away from the idea that it is all just a matter of a lack of self-control and exercise," said Prof Henry. "Every measure to reduce food intake must be explored. If we are serious about this issue, we need the Government and the food industry to get together to fund more research as a matter of urgency." Within the scientific world there is mounting anger over what is being seen as foot-dragging by the food industry over its role in the increase in obesity, which according to official figures is responsible for 30,000 premature deaths a year in Britain. Neville Rigby, the policy director of the London-based international obesity task force, said: "The food industry is the solution - they have to be, but they are not doing enough." However,the food industry insists that the issues involved are complex. A spokesman for Kellogg's, which makes many high GI cereals, said: "The science is relatively new and in some areas controversial. For instance, simply adding milk to cornflakes lowers their GI, while adding a banana lowers it even further. "There is very clear evidence that foods such as Kellogg's Corn Flakes, which are high in carbohydrate and low in fat, play an important role in helping people reduce fat intakes, maintain weight levels and possibly help their bodies to better control blood sugar levels." Parents with children suffering from spina bifida welcomed the research. Su Scurr, from Tiverton, Devon, whose three-year-old daughter Briony has spina bifida, said last night: "If these foods are a significant factor then women need to be made aware of this research. I wouldn't wish what happened to me on anyone. It was awful. We found out that I was carrying a child with spina bifida in a scan at about 22 weeks. "I took folic acid in the two months before I got pregnant and I made sure I ate lots of fruit and salads but in the past I had eaten quite a bit of sugar. Who doesn't eat cereals? We need more research into spina bifida." Mrs Scurr, a full-time mother, who lives with her husband Peter, a chiropodist, Briony and two other - healthy - children, said abortion was not an option. "I have no regrets. Briony is lovely." Tanni Grey-Thompson OBE, who was born with spina bifida and has become Britain's best-known paralympic athlete, said last night: "These findings are interesting but you have to put them into context. Living in areas with heavy industry is also a factor, for example. It is really useful to encourage women to eat a better diet but there are also financial reasons why women eat what they do." Ms Grey-Thompson, who has won 14 paralympic medals and eight medal placings in the London Marathon, added: "There are a huge number of scary things that women are told when they become pregnant that can put a lot of guilt on mothers. Sometimes disability is no one's fault and there is nothing you can do about it." |
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