Here’s a good reason to eat fruit while you’re pregnant: It could make your baby smarter.
A new study published in the journal EBioMedicine found that mothers who ate fruit during pregnancy had babies who performed better in developmental tests at age 1.
Researchers with the University of Alberta in Canada analyzed data on 688 children and their mothers, all participants in a larger study on childhood health. During pregnancy, the children’s mothers completed questionnaires about their food intake, including fruit consumption.
At age 1, researchers tested the babies’ intellectual development, including their memory, attention and interest in their environment. They found that the more fruit the babies’ mothers reported eating during pregnancy, the higher their babies scored in the developmental tests.
Pregnant mothers who ate six or seven servings of fruit or fruit juice a day had infants that placed six or seven points higher on the IQ scale at age 1 than infants of mothers who ate no fruit, according to a report on the study.
The researchers defined a fruit serving as ½ a cup of fresh fruit, ¼ cup of dried fruit, or ¾ cup of 100 percent fruit juice. They controlled for other factors that could influence a child’s IQ score, such as parental income and education level.
A complementary study on fruit flies also found a correlation between fruit consumption during pregnancy, and memory and learning in young fruit flies. Obviously, there are big differences between humans and fruit flies, but scientists have found that the genes involved in fruit fly brain function are similar to ours.
Overall, these findings suggest a correlation but don’t prove a connection between prenatal fruit consumption and intelligence in children. The study also relied on women self-reporting their fruit intake, which might not be entirely accurate. More research is needed to see if the higher IQ scores persist as the children get older.
Experts recommend eating fruit as part of a balanced diet during pregnancy. The study authors said women shouldn’t go overboard though because there needs to be more research on whether too much fruit can contribute to gestational diabetes and high birth weight. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends women eat between 1 ½ and 2 cups of fruit a day.
What do you think about this study? Do you have a favorite way of making fruit a part of your daily diet?
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