Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990 TAG: 9006070511
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The guidelines, based on a review of studies on nutrition, weight gain and pregnancy, said the average woman who gains 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy is more apt to produce a healthy, normal-weight baby. The study said also that, with few exceptions, vitamins and other food supplements are of no value in pregnancy.
In effect, said Lindsay Allen, a professor of nutrition at the University of Connecticut, the study committee concluded that Mother Nature may know best.
"Women, when they are not told to restrict their diet during pregnancy, normally gain this amount of weight [25 to 35 pounds]," said Allen, who was a chairman of a study subcommittee.
"What we are doing is recognizing that dietary restriction in pregnancy is not a good idea. Normal weight gain is better."
"Evidence that the committee reviewed is the reported experience of large groups of women," said Dr. Roy M. Pitkin, a UCLA obstetrician who chaired the study committee.
Officials in the nutritional-supplement industry were quick to dispute the committee's findings that said vitamin pills were of no value in pregnancy.
"This outrageously anti-health report potentially dooms thousands of children to an early death or at best substantial disability due to serious birth defects," J.B. Cordaro, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a vitamin industry organization, said in a statement.
"This report is a recipe for risk and the people who prepared the report must be held accountable for any potential harm which may come from following their advice."
Cordaro cited studies that showed some nutrients, such as folic acid, may reduce the risk of spina bifida and other neural tube birth defects.
Allen said, however, that the committee found earlier studies to be inconclusive.
Furthermore, she said, the amount of nutrient sufficient to affect birth defect rates would be consumed in a normal, balanced diet.
The report said weight gain during pregnancy should be evaluated on an individual basis, considering the woman's height and body type.
Tall, underweight women, the study said, should gain between 28 and 40 pounds during pregnancy, while obese women should gain only about 15 pounds.
How fast pregnant women gain weight is important. The committee said a gain of one pound a week is best during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy for the average woman, while overweight women should gain at half that rate.
"Sudden or erratic gain may indicate fluid retention, a possible signal of toxemia or other problems."
For normal women eating balanced diets, Allen said vitamin pills and other food supplements are not needed and could even be hazardous.
"We find it irresponsible to suggest that supplements are needed when we can't find any evidence that women taking healthy balanced diets will gain any benefit from them whatsoever," she said.
by CNB