Say no to Artificial Sweeteners during Pregnancy (report on published surveys)

It has been well documented that mothers' eating habits during pregnancy determine the Childs' immune system. The recent study on the impact of artificial flavored soft drinks consumption during pregnancy on child health in terms of asthma and allergic rhinitis is an eye opener for the women who are in initial stages of their conception or are planning in future. The study laid its foundation because of high association between diet yogurt consumption and the adolescent's asthma and allergic rhinitis founded in a research conducted by Danish National Birth Cohort. The reason propounded was the presence of artificial sweeteners in diet products.

Alarmed by the aforementioned results, Maslova et al.(2013) under the funding of Danish Council for Strategic Research examined the impact of artificial sweeteners consumption by mother on child's asthma and allergic rhinitis. The results of the study has been based on 60,466 pregnancies during 1996 and 2002 for women in Denmark. The research methodology used was the surveys administered at different stages of gestation period about the food habits of mother as well as the surveys on post conception health of the child. The mode of surveys used were primarily the questionnaires and telephonic interviews. The study incorporated four types of beverages : sweetened and diet(artificially sweetened) carbonated and non-carbonated drinks respectively.

The multivariate analysis of the study proved that the children are at 20% or more risk to get asthmatic if the mother consumes artificially sweetened carbonated drinks even once a week as compared to those who never consumed. The figure is more than 10% risk for artificially sweetened non-carbonated drinks. However, no association was found between children asthma and consumption of sweetened carbonated or non-carbonated drinks. The previous results were based on 18 months post delivery. Even follow up for allergic rhinitis after seven years post delivery depicted 30% more chances of getting allergic if artificial sweetened drinks are consumed on daily basis.

Artificial sweeteners are nothing other than the sugar substitutes. These days, weight watchers easily fall in the trap of substituting products containing regular sugar (sucrose) with the products labeled as 'diet'. The diet products often use artificial sweeteners to replace the energy content offered by table sugar, as well as to contribute to the taste of the product. For example, diet coke taste sweet, though it gives different texture to our taste buds.

The results of the study may depend upon the type of the artificial sweeteners used in the drinks. Also, a detailed scientific research on humans is required on the topic to justify the findings of the above quantitative study. However, the indication provided by authors is valuable for the mothers to be and of course, precaution is better than cure.

Reference:

Maslova, E., Strom, M., Olsen, S.F. and Halldorson, T.L. (2013) 'Consumption of Artificial Sweetened Soft Drinks in Pregnancy and Risk of Child Asthma and Allergic Rhinitis' Plos One, Vol. 8, Iss. 2, pp 1-11.