“Gestational diabetes refers to high blood glucose levels during pregnancy – about 4 percent of women develop gestational diabetes”, explained dietician Rachel Berman in an interview with Mashable. This is due to the fact that potatoes contain starch that when decomposed by the body becomes a new source of energy, just like glucose.
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The findings that first appeared in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) go on to say that the better alternatives to potatoes are vegetables, legumes or whole grains, which, apart from cutting down the risk of gestational diabetes, are also instrumental in improving the overall health of the consumer.
Interestingly enough, The Today Show investigated more about the women who participated in the study and found they were not only overweight prior to the start of the study but they also smoked.
Bao W, Tobias DK, Hu FB, Chavarro JE, and Zhang C. Pre-pregnancy potato consumption and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: prospective cohort study.
The conclusion of the survey was that potatoes may lead to gestational diabetes. Previous studies have linked foods with a high glycemic index, a measure of the ability to raise blood sugar levels, to a higher risk of gestational or type 2 diabetes.
Another researcher Emily Burns cautioned, “This study does not prove that eating potatoes before pregnancy will increase a woman’s risk of developing gestational diabetes, but it does highlight a potential association between the two”.
The solution? Eat other vegetables and legumes – a family including beans, peas and lentils – instead of starchy spuds, the authors recommend. Moreover, it has been proven that high intakes of potatoes can cause insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Substituting two servings of potatoes a week with other vegetables or whole grain foods yielded an approximately 10% reduction in risk, they reported. However, until the current study, the effect of potatoes, a common, high-glycemic food, on the development of gestational diabetes was unknown.
New advice for pregnant women – New research warns that women who eat plenty of potatoes are at greater risk of suffering diabetes during pregnancy.
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Experts analysed total potato consumption, including baked, boiled, mashed and fried. They estimate that if women eat these foods as an alternative to potatoes at least twice a week, they could reduce the risk of diabetes during pregnancy by nine to 12 percent.
