Effect of a Low-Glycemic Load Diet Intervention on Maternal and Pregnancy Outcomes in Obese Pregnant Women

• Published in: Nutrients 2021-02, Vol.13 (3), p.748
• Main Authors: Goletzke, Janina, De Haene, Jessica, Stotland, Naomi E, Murphy, Elizabeth J, Perez-Rodriguez, Marcela, King, Janet C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anthropometry; Area Under Curve; Birth Weight; Blood Glucose - metabolism; Blood pressure; Body fat; Body mass; Body Mass Index; Body size; Body weight; Carbohydrates; Cereals; Chronic illnesses; Consent; Diet; Diet, Carbohydrate-Restricted - methods; Diet, Diabetic - methods; dietary intervention; Disease; Female; Food; Fruits; Gestation; Gestational Age; Gestational diabetes; Gestational Weight Gain; Glucose; Glucose Intolerance - blood; Glucose Intolerance - complications; Glucose Intolerance - diet therapy; glucose metabolism; Glucose tolerance; glycemic load; Glycemic Load - physiology; Hispanic people; Homeostasis; Hospitals; Humans; Hypertension; Infant, Newborn; Insulin resistance; Intolerance; Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Metabolism; Nutrient deficiency; Nutritionists; obese women; Obesity; Obesity - blood; Obesity - complications; Obesity - diet therapy; Overweight; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications - blood; Pregnancy Complications - diet therapy; Pregnancy Outcome; Statistical analysis; Thyroid gland; Treatment Outcome; Womens health; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu13030748

The increased prevalence of obese, pregnant women who have a higher risk of glucose intolerance warrants the need for nutritional interventions to improve maternal glucose homeostasis. In this study, the effect of a low-glycemic load (GL) ( = 28) was compared to a high-GL ( = 34) dietary intervention during the second half of pregnancy in obese women (body mass index (BMI) > 30 or a body fat >35%). Anthropometric and metabolic parameters were assessed at baseline (20 week) and at 28 and 34 weeks gestation. For the primary outcome 3h-glucose-iAUC (3h-incremental area under the curve), mean between-group differences were non-significant at every study timepoint ( = 0.6, 0.3, and 0.8 at 20, 28, and 34 weeks, respectively) and also assessing the mean change over the study period ( = 0.6). Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference between the two intervention groups for any of the other examined outcomes ( ≥ 0.07). In the pooled cohort, there was no significant effect of dietary GL on any metabolic or anthropometric outcome ( ≥ 0.2). A post hoc analysis comparing the study women to a cohort of overweight or obese pregnant women who received only routine care showed that the non-study women were more likely to gain excess weight ( = 0.046) and to deliver large-for-gestational-age (LGA) ( = 0.01) or macrosomic ( = 0.006) infants. Thus, a low-GL diet consumed during the last half of pregnancy did not improve pregnancy outcomes in obese women, but in comparison to non-study women, dietary counseling reduced the risk of adverse outcomes.