Sugar Linked to Birth Defects

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LONDON (UPI) -- Researchers found pregnant women who eat foods with a high glycemic index such as cornflakes may increase the chance of birth defects. University of California researchers compared the diet of 454 mothers of children with neural tube defects like spina bifida, with 462 mothers who had healthy babies. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found the risk of birth defects doubled in women who ate lots of foods that give a quick sugar hit such as potatoes, white rice, white bread and some soft drinks -- and among obese women it quadrupled.

Andrew Russell, chief executive of the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus in London, said the research should be treated with caution and that further studies are needed. "Neural tube defect research is very complicated, and theories abound about the significance of sugars, proteins, vitamins and other micronutrients," he told the BBC. "The idea that a sugar surge in the maternal blood could cause spina bifida, while not impossible, would need quite a lot of corroboration because there are so many other things that feed into the metabolic process."