Eating a bad diet is associated with an increase in the risk of diabetes during pregnancy, according to a recent study.

The study of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Massachusetts discovered that women who contract diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes) were more likely to follow worse diets than women who did not counter the disease.

"The women of reproductive age of the United States have, on average, a diet of poor quality. Women with a history of [gestational diabetes] have a general diet of significantly worse quality and reported a lower consumption of leafy vegetables and beans than theWomen without such antecedents, "the study researchers wrote.

Although this study found an association between the quality of the diet and gestational diabetes, it was not designed to test causality between these factors.

To carry out the study, the researchers analyzed the data of women who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Exam Survey of the United States. UU. From 2007 to 2010, and found that almost 8 percent of them contracted gestational diabetes during aPREVIOUS PREGNANCY.

On average, women with a history of gestational diabetes were 2.5 years older than those that had never had the disease.They were also more likely to be obese, being of a breed that was not the white one, that they would have diagnosed prediabetes and having other health risks for diabetes.

After taking into account the age, the educational level, if they smoked and the risk of diabetes, women with a history of gestational diabetes obtained a worse score in the quality of the diet than those that had never had the disease.

The researchers also found that women with a history of gestational diabetes obtained a worse score in the consumption of leafy and bean vegetables, according to the study published in the Preventing Chronic Disease magazine.

Source: Preventing Chronic Disease