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Diabetes tests reveal prenatal vegetable diet may be preventative

Updated: 2009-11-02 21:00:12 CST Category: Diabetes

by Brendan Missett

Eating vegetables during pregnancy may reduce the risk of having children with type 1 diabetes, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden studied more than 6,000 children who were 5 years old to determine a relationship between prenatal care and the development of diabetes, HealthDay News reports.

According to the study, which was published in the journal Pediatric Diabetes, 3 percent of the children had developed type 1 diabetes or had elevated levels of antibodies indicating a high risk of the condition's future development.

The risk of contracting type 1 diabetes was twice as high in mothers who rarely ate vegetables during pregnancy, and lowest among children whose mothers reported eating vegetables every day.

Though the lead researcher Hilde Brekke said that the study does not necessary demonstrate that vegetables have a causal effect on diabetes risk, he acknowledged that "other measured dietary factors and other known risk factors" do not "seem to explain the link."

The American Diabetes Association estimates that 21 million children and adults in the U.S. or 7 percent of the population have diabetes today.

Doctors recommend a fasting plasma glucose test or a casual plasma glucose test for diabetes screening - a measure which allows for early detection and efficient treatment of the disorder.

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