According to a US study, pregnant women who most frequently take more trans-fats from snacks, fast food chains, as well as other non-ideal food sources tend to deliver bigger babies. In the report of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, about 1,400 pregnant women were examined to identify the effects of a high intake of LDL (bad cholesterol/ contained in trans-fats) and low intake of HDL (good cholesterol). In the results of the study, it was found out that women who eat foods low in good cholesterol but high in bad cholesterol tend to give birth to larger than normal babies.

The study, on the other hand, did not conclude that it is the trans-fats alone that shoots up fetal growth, and if it really did, the effects in unclear about the harms that this may pose to the child. But according to Juliana Cohen, lead researcher of the study from the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston, there is indeed a risk of delivering large babies.

“It’s prudent to limit trans fats in your diet anyway. Pregnant women may want to think about how (the fats) could affect fetal growth as well,” she noted.

Artificial trans-fats are commonly found in food products like hydrogenated oils which are used in manufacturing baked and fried packaged goodies like French fries, crackers, chips, cookies and many other fast foods. On the other hand, natural trans-fats can be found in many meat and dairy products but the bulk of trans-fats are usually found in these artificial food products. Because of the poor publicity that these trans-fats bring about, many restaurants are cutting back on their use of these products.

In the more recent study conducted among women who gave birth during 1999 to 2002, about 1,400 women were asked to furnish a completed questionnaire containing information about their diets, more specifically those during the first and second trimesters.

After taking away the factors which may predispose the infants to higher birth weight like pre-pregnancy body weight, income status, calorie intake and education, the relationship between trans-fats intake and birth size persisted. In their calculation, they considered each 1% increase in trans-fat as a carbohydrate replacement in a woman’s diet.

According to Cohen, the effects of this birth weight to later life may be very limited but unfortunately, these are what most pregnant women crave for.

In the website of the American Pregnancy Association, they said that “eating well balanced meals is important at all times, but it is even more essential when you are pregnant. There are essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that your developing baby needs. Most foods are safe; however, there are some foods that you should avoid during pregnancy.”

They specified foods which need to be avoided during pregnancy and among these are: raw meat, deli meat, fish with mercury, smoked seafoods, fish which are exposed to industrial chemicals, raw shellfish, raw eggs, soft cheeses, unpasteurized milk, caffeine, pate, alcohol and unwashed vegetables.

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