Probiotics and Pregnancy Beacon NY
Probiotics and Pregnancy
Taking probiotics during pregnancy prevents obesity, according to a new study presented at the 17th European Congress on Obesity in May. According to researchers, one year after giving birth, women were less likely to become obese if they had taken probiotics starting from the first trimester of pregnancy.
In recent years, nutritionists and health experts have labelled probiotics as superfoods. They maintain a healthy balance of bacteria in the digestive tract and fight the growth of harmful bacteria. They also help treat a range of intestinal diseases and play a role in controlling inflammation. Now, obesity researchers have started to investigate whether the balance of bacteria in the gut is a contributing factor to being overweight and whether adjusting the balance would help to fight these two conditions.
"Central obesity, where overall obesity is combined with a particularly fat belly, is considered especially unhealthy," said Kirsi Laitinen, a nutritionist and senior lecturer at the University of Turku in Finland who presented the study. "We found it in 25 percent of the women who had received the probiotics along with dietary counselling, compared with 43 percent in the women who received diet advice alone."
In the study, 256 women were divided into three groups during the first trimester of pregnancy. Two of the groups received dietary counselling consistent with recommendations for healthy weight gain and optimal fetal development during pregnancy. They were also given food such as spreads and salad dressings with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, and fiber-enriched pasta and breakfast cereal to take home...
