Eating fish and eggs during pregnancy could help your child develop at a healthy weight

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-03-07 06:00

Australia; QLD

Photo by John Baker on Unsplash

Fish and eggs are likely both important foods to eat during pregnancy to give a child the best chance of growing up at a healthy weight, according to Australian research. The team used data from a study that looked at the weight of children periodically from birth until they reached 15, and compared this with diet information from their mothers during pregnancy to see if excluding certain foods impacted their risk of obesity or being underweight. The researchers say not eating fish during pregnancy was linked to a higher risk of the child being underweight in their teens and mild to moderate obesity at early school age. Not eating eggs was linked to a higher risk of obesity in the teen years, they say. The researchers note their study cannot show eliminating fish or eggs caused a child's weight, and say more research needs to be done to understand why this link exists.

Journal/
conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Southern Queensland

Funder: This research was undertaken as part of Brenton Horne’s Master of Research degree program, which was funded by the Australian Government’s Research Training Program (RTP). The RTP is a scholarship that provided Brenton Horne with free tuition and a stipend. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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