Beyond protein intake: does dietary fat intake in the year preceding pregnancy and during pregnancy have an impact on gestational diabetes mellitus?

Abstract

Purpose Studies regarding the association between dietary fat intake and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are limited and provide conflicting findings. Thus, the study aims to examine the association of dietary fat intake in the year preceding pregnancy and during pregnancy with the risk of GDM, taking the relevance of dietary protein intake on GDM into consideration. Methods A prospective study was conducted in 6299 singleton pregnancies, using the data from the Nutrition in Pregnancy and Growth in Southwest China (NPGSC). A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess dietary fat intake in the year preceding pregnancy and during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the prospective associations of dietary fat intake and the type and source of dietary fats in different time windows with GDM risk. Results Higher intake of total fat [OR (95% CI): 2.21 (1.19–4.20), P = 0.02] during 12–22 weeks of gestation was associated with higher GDM risk. However, adjustment for animal protein intake greatly attenuated this association [OR (95% CI): 1.81 (0.93, 3.64), P = 0.11]. Total fat intake neither in the year preceding pregnancy nor during the early pregnancy was associated with GDM risk. Moreover, insignificant associations were observed between intakes of vegetable fat, animal fat, cholesterol, saturated fatty acid, monounsaturated fatty acid and polyunsaturated fatty acid one year before pregnancy and during the first and second trimesters and GDM risk. Conclusion Our study indicated that dietary fat intake one year before pregnancy and across the two pregnancy trimesters preceding the diagnosis of GDM has no relevance on GDM risk among Chinese women, particularly those with normal BMI, low, or normal calorie intake.

Dietary fat quantity and quality in early pregnancy and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus in Chinese women: a prospective cohort study

“…Similar to GDM, T2DM also results from a mixture of insulin resistance and dysfunctional insulin secretion. However, another Chinese pregnant women cohort study (14) elucidated no significant association between total fat intake in the first trimester and GDM risk, which was not consistent with our results. In the former study, dietary information was collected by a food frequency questionnaire, and the main source of fat was animal food; while we gathered dietary information by 3-day dietary recalls, and the fat in our study mainly came from vegetables.…”

The Effect of Dietary Protein Intake on the Risk of Gestational Diabetes

“…In this stage, twenty-nine articles were excluded due to the following reasons: irrelevant articles (n � 19), cross-sectional studies (n � 3), case-control studies (n � 4), and studies with insufcient data (n � 3). Six cohort studies were fnally included in the systematic review and meta-analysis [12,[20][21][22][23][24].…”

Dietary Inflammatory Nutrients and Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Risk: A Case-Control Study

“…Corresponding to our results, a sub-study of the Protein Overfeeding trial [ 33 ] examined the changes in blood lipids under over-ingestion of high and low protein diets, elucidating that protein intake and fat intake were inversely related. Moreover, A prospective study [ 34 ] indicated that the association between higher take of dietary fat and gestational diabetes mellitus risk was drastically attenuated after adjustment for animal protein intake. It was not unique but had its counterpart.…”