PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

NIH study identifies foods to help pregnant people optimize intake of key nutrients

Study can help doctors and pregnant patients shape a balanced diet and supplement strategy

NIH study identifies foods to help pregnant people optimize intake of key nutrients
2023-09-27
(Press-News.org) Most pregnant people in the U.S. are at risk of not getting enough of six nutrients important to a healthy pregnancy—vitamin A, vitamin D, folate, calcium, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids—from foods alone. Yet finding a combination of foods and supplements that delivers the right amounts of these nutrients without exceeding calorie recommendations or safety limits can be challenging.

In a new study published in The Journal of Nutrition, researchers from NIH’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program wanted to find low-calorie, nutrient-rich foods that could boost nutrient intake, much like dietary supplements do. They calculated how much of the six nutrients participants were getting from their diets and compared that data to pregnancy nutrition recommendations to determine the amount of nutrients the participants would need from additional foods to make up for the gaps in their diet.

What they found was that no single food they evaluated gave enough of all six nutrients in a reasonable serving size to bring typical diets in line with recommendations for nutrient intake during pregnancy. One food—raw seaweed—contained five of the key nutrients—vitamin A, folate, calcium, iron, and omega-3 fatty acid—but required up to 7 cups a day to meet daily requirements. Twenty-one foods and beverages contained at least four key nutrients in reasonable serving sizes, including a 1.2-cup ready-to-drink nutritional shake. Researchers also found that few foods met the targets for vitamin D and iron, suggesting that dietary supplements may be necessary to fill the gaps for those particular nutrients.

"This study emphasizes the importance of a balanced and varied diet during pregnancy, along with considering appropriate supplementation, to ensure the well-being of both the mother and the developing baby," study author Katherine Sauder, PhD of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine said.

The research highlights a selection of healthy, low-calorie foods that pregnant people can add to their diets to help meet nutritional requirements during pregnancy. Some examples of readily available foods to choose from include:

0.2 cups of raw carrots for vitamin A 2.6 cups of reduced-fat milk for vitamin D 0.4 cups of edamame could provide the optimal amount of folic acid 1 cup of a nutritional drink or shake for calcium 0.9 cups of multigrain cereal for iron 0.1 cups of canned chicken for omega-3 fatty acids What happened during the study

ECHO researchers examined more than 2,300 foods and drinks that people in the U.S. typically eat, focusing on those containing one or more of the six essential nutrients to be consumed during pregnancy. The foods and quantities evaluated contained the minimum amount of one or more of the nutrients without exceeding 340 calories or the maximum amount of any of the other nutrients. Then, they compared diets of 2,450 pregnant participants from six ECHO research sites across the U.S. to pregnancy nutrition recommendations to determine how participants could fill the gaps in their diets.

This collaborative research was led by Dr. Sauder and Catherine Cohen, PhD, RD of the University of Colorado Denver - Anschutz Medical Campus.

Sauder, K. et al. Identifying Foods That Optimize Intake of Key Micronutrients During Pregnancy. Journal of Nutrition. DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.08.012

 

###

About ECHO:

Launched in 2016, the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program is a research program in the Office of the Director at the NIH with the mission to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

About the NIH: NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information, visit www.nih.gov.

END


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
NIH study identifies foods to help pregnant people optimize intake of key nutrients NIH study identifies foods to help pregnant people optimize intake of key nutrients 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Carnegie Mellon University launches WebAssembly Research Center

2023-09-27
Carnegie Mellon University has launched the WebAssembly Research Center to harness the potential of the open-source platform. The internet isn't just the internet anymore. Increasingly, users turn to the web to stream videos, play games, shop, edit photos, collaborate with colleagues and more. Those users expect the internet to work seamlessly on everything from a computer to a smartphone. To make that happen means juggling code in different languages written for different platforms. WebAssembly (Wasm) was created to do just that. "Ultimately, all software could one day run on WebAssembly," said Ben Titzer, director ...

Racial discrimination among teens linked to unhealthy stress hormone levels

2023-09-27
Audio Scientists already know that the stress caused by racial discrimination is related to a host of chronic health conditions, but less is known about which types of discrimination are most harmful.    To answer that question, researchers at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology surveyed 100 adolescents aged 13-19, who had obesity or who were overweight, about their experiences with institutional, peer, educational and cumulative discrimination.    They measured their salivary cortisol ...

Psychological aspects of erectile dysfunction deserve more attention, health scientists say

2023-09-27
Washington, DC (September 27, 2023) -- Personality traits and mental health problems are among the factors linked to erectile dysfunction (ED), a condition that affects up to 80% of men over the age of 60. But researchers often overlook these psychological causes and their treatments in favor of biological components of ED, according to a new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science.  In a review of existing research, Mark S. Allen, Alex M. Wood (Leeds Trinity University), and David Sheffield ...

Ochsner Health named to Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Workplaces for Parents and Families 2023

2023-09-27
NEW ORLEANS– Ochsner Health was recently named one of the 2023 America’s Greatest Workplaces for Parents and Families by Newsweek and market-data research firm Plant-A Insights Group. A large-scale employer study based on over 224,000 company reviews aided in selecting 800 companies and organizations nationwide for the inaugural list. “It is an honor to be named among the greatest workplaces in the nation for parents and families. Our top priority at Ochsner is to put patients first, and we know employees are at their best when they have a healthy work-life balance directly correlating with the high-quality care offered to our patients ...

Your Zoom background might influence the first impression you make

Your Zoom background might influence the first impression you make
2023-09-27
In a new study, participants tended to judge faces appearing against backgrounds featuring houseplants or bookcases as more trustworthy and competent than faces with a living space or a novelty image behind them. Gender and facial expression also appeared to influence judgments. Research led by Paddy Ross, Abi Cook  and Meg Thompson at Durham University, UK is publishing in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on September 27, 2023. Prior research has demonstrated that first impressions can make a real difference in people’s lives; for example, ...

Lack of financial planning linked to higher risk of death in US and UK

Lack of financial planning linked to higher risk of death in US and UK
2023-09-27
People who are less socioeconomically advantaged have lower life expectancies, with a number of possible underlying mechanisms, such as less ability to spend on healthcare or the psychological effects of economic inequality. Prior research also shows that many households struggle to financially prepare for old age. However, few researchers have explored whether forward-thinking financial decision making is itself associated with lower risk of death. To address this potential link, Gladstone and Hundtofte analyzed data spanning a 22-year period for 11,478 older people living in the US and ...

Male and female Olympic shooters perform equally well when targets are stationary, though men have the edge for moving targets, per analysis of 2021 Tokyo Olympics which trialed mixed-gender events

Male and female Olympic shooters perform equally well when targets are stationary, though men have the edge for moving targets, per analysis of 2021 Tokyo Olympics which trialed mixed-gender events
2023-09-27
Male and female Olympic shooters perform equally well when targets are stationary, though men have the edge for moving targets, per analysis of 2021 Tokyo Olympics which trialed mixed-gender events. #### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0291017 Article Title: Do women and men compete equally on a level playing field? An empirical investigation into the 2021 Olympic shooting competitions Author Countries: USA, Spain Funding: The authors received no specific ...

Tree rings reveal a new kind of earthquake threat to the Pacific Northwest

Tree rings reveal a new kind of earthquake threat to the Pacific Northwest
2023-09-27
In February, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook the Turkey-Syria border, followed by one nearly as large nine hours later. Shallow faults less than 18 miles beneath the surface buckled and ruptured, causing violent focused quakes that leveled thousands of buildings and killed tens of thousands. Similar shallow faults ruptured about 1,000 years ago in the Puget Lowlands in western Washington, according to new University of Arizona-led research. Tree rings helped pinpoint that the seismic event occurred in late A.D. 923 or ...

Researchers find potential way to tweak immune system to help it fight tuberculosis

2023-09-27
Tuberculosis is old—ancient even. The infectious bacterial disease that plagued Old Testament Israelites and took down pharaohs was eventually stunted by vaccinations, antibiotics, and public health measures like isolation, but it hasn’t been cured yet. More than a million people around the world still die from TB every year. Now, a Boston University-led research team has found a way to tweak immune cells to better fight the disease and—with the right backing and funding—they say it could ...

Researchers discover disease-causing stem cells in lungs of cystic fibrosis patients

Researchers discover disease-causing stem cells in lungs of cystic fibrosis patients
2023-09-27
Two nationally recognized experts in cloning and stem cell science from the University of Houston, Wa Xian and Frank McKeon, are reporting that five lung stem cell variants dominate the lungs of patients with advanced cystic fibrosis (CF), and that these variants drive key aspects of CF pathology including inflammation, fibrosis and mucin secretion.      Cystic fibrosis is an inherited and progressive disease that causes long-lasting lung infections and limits the ability to breathe. It is caused by a defect in a gene called the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

ASH: Novel combination therapy significantly reduces spleen volume in patients with myelofibrosis

ASH: Novel menin inhibitors show promise for patients with advanced acute myeloid leukemias

ASH: Targeted oral therapy reduced disease burden and improved symptoms for patients with rare blood disorder

New Sylvester cancer study provides insight into underlying gene mutations in myelodysplastic syndromes

First-in-human clinical trial of CAR T cell therapy with new binding mechanism shows promising early responses

Long-term results show combination treatment that skips chemotherapy is effective for older patients with Ph+ ALL

Mindfulness could help women with opioid use disorder better control drug urges

TTUHSC’s ARPA-H membership will spur innovation, improve access for West Texas patients

Global annual finance flows of $7 trillion fueling climate, biodiversity, and land degradation crises

Tracing how the infant brain responds to touch with near-infrared spectroscopy

These are the world's most effective charities

When is an aurora not an aurora?

Advisory panel issues field-defining recommendations for US government investments in particle physics research

Doctors discover many patients at UNC’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic screen positive for malnutrition

BNL: Advisory panel issues field-defining recommendations for U.S. government investments in particle physics research

International collaboration uses faculty member’s research on ancient Roman migration, seeks to understand Balkan genomic history

USF Health Heart Institute doctors are upbeat about cardiac regeneration

AI-driven breakthroughs in cells study: SFU-UBC collaboration introduces "MCS-detect" for advancements in super-resolution microscopy

Advisory panel issues field-defining recommendations for investments in particle physics research

$3.8 million NIH grant to fund Southwest Center on Resilience for Climate Change and Health

What happens when the brain loses a hub? 

Study reveals Zika’s shape-shifting machinery—and a possible vulnerability

RIT leading STEM co-mentoring network

Genetic mutations that promote reproduction tend to shorten human lifespan, study shows

CAMH develops potential new drug treatment for multiple sclerosis

Polyethylene waste could be a thing of the past

A dynamic picture of how we respond to high or low oxygen levels

University of Toronto researchers discover new lipid nanoparticle that shows muscle-specific mRNA delivery, reduces off-target effects.

Evolving insights in blood-based liquid biopsies for prostate cancer interrogation

Finding the most heat-resistant substances ever made

[Press-News.org] NIH study identifies foods to help pregnant people optimize intake of key nutrients
Study can help doctors and pregnant patients shape a balanced diet and supplement strategy