Children may be more likely to develop type 1 diabetes if their mothers’ diets during pregnancy were rich in foods tied to low-grade inflammation, such as red meat and sugary drinks, a new study suggests.
Type 1 diabetes, sometimes called childhood diabetes, is an autoimmune condition marked by chronic inflammation of pancreatic tissue. Diagnoses have been rising in Europe since the 1990s, prompting scientists to hunt for clues on what’s driving the increase.
The new study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, indicates that women’s diets during pregnancy may be part of the answer.
It included nearly 68,000 women in Denmark who gave birth between 1996 and 2002, and followed their children over an average of 17 years. The mothers were assigned scores based on how inflammatory their diets were mid-pregnancy, drawn from a survey that covered 38 food groups and 360 items.
Inflammation can be good – it’s how the immune system fights off injuries or infections. But high levels of inflammation over a long period of time have been tied to health issues such as arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and nutrition has a significant impact.
Many foods are thought to have inflammatory properties, including red and processed meats, sodas and other sugary drinks, white bread and pasta, deep-fried foods, and non-dairy creamers high in trans fats, among others.
On the other hand, pregnant women had lower inflammatory diet scores if they ate more onions, tomatoes, whole grains, coffee, green leafy vegetables, dark meat fish, tea, and fruits.
In all, 281 children were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes – just 0.4 per cent of all the kids included in the study.
But they were significantly more likely to be diabetic if their mothers had more inflammatory diets during pregnancy, the analysis found.
“There is growing evidence that inflammation early in life can affect the immune system and thus the risk of chronic diseases,” Sjurdur Frodi Olsen, the study’s lead researcher and a professor of fetal programming at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, said in a statement.
Midway through “pregnancy appears to be a particularly sensitive period, where the fetus is susceptible to external influences, including the mother's lifestyle,” Olsen added.
Other factors that appear to raise the risk of type 1 diabetes include the mother’s gluten intake and smoking during pregnancy.
Notably, women were not included in the analysis if they had type 1 or type 2 diabetes before pregnancy, and it took into account risk factors such as weight.
However, the study did not track children’s diets, and it cannot prove that an inflammatory diet during the mothers’ pregnancy actually caused their diabetes.
Researchers said the results make the case for more studies on the link between inflammation, the immune system, and childhood health.
The next step, Olsen said, is to “investigate possible mechanisms behind the observed relationships, so that we can gain a better overall understanding”.
