Pregnant Women Must Avoid Sweets

Many studies suggest that modern women of childbearing age eat sweets and confectionery and drink sugar-containing beverages in large quantities. The scientists from New Zealand found that an expectant mother must monitor the level of sweets in her diet very carefully as soon as she gets pregnant. Sugar turns out to have a different effect on fetal development.

The researchers concluded that sweets in the diet are particularly dangerous if a woman is going to give birth to a girl: in this case, the fetus of a pregnant sweet tooth loses nutrients and is poorly developed.

Experiments on animals confirmed the harmful effect of sugar. The female mice that were given 26 teaspoons of sugar syrup daily had a smaller placenta of female fetuses than the mice with a normal diet. The experts believe that sugar does not allow the nutrients to be absorbed by the female fetus in the right amounts.

The researchers have also noted that blood sugar levels in male and female embryos of the mice, treated with sweet syrup, differed. The female embryos had more sugar in their blood than male embryos. The doctors have concluded that the excess of sugar during pregnancy affects the woman’s fetus differently, depending on the gender of the embryo.

The experts claim it is the first time that the scientists were able to confirm that female and male fetuses react to the consumption of sweets by their mother in a different way, and these differences may be related to changes in the development of the placenta.