Pregnant women who consume five or more drinks of artificially sweetened beverage (ASB) a week increase their risk of developing gestational diabetes by six per cent, new research from the University of Adelaide has found.
Data was collected from more than 3,600 women from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health and studied by Associate Professor Zohra Lassi, of the School of Public Health and Robinson Research Institute, and team.
Participants' beverage consumption was assessed from 12 drinks such as cola drinks, diet cola drinks, other carbonated drinks, other diet carbonated drinks, non-carbonated cordials, fruit or sports drinks -- not diet, non-carbonated diet cordials, fruit or sport drinks, milk or soya milk (including flavoured varieties), fruit or vegetable juices, tea, herbal tea, coffee, and water (including soda or plain mineral water).
Intake of ASB was determined from reported consumption of three beverages: diet cola drinks, other diet carbonated drinks, and non-carbonated diet cordials, fruit or sports drinks.
The findings, published in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, found for each additional artificially sweetened beverage, the likelihood of gestational diabetes increased by six per cent.
"Preconception dietary risk factors, along with other risks, can establish patterns that affect the well-being of the mother and their baby's long-term health," says Mr Bereket Menota, lead author of the research and PhD candidate with the School of Agriculture Food and Wine, and Robinson Research Institute
"As a result, we see women adopting lifestyle changes, including diet modification and weight loss, during this period, which can include replacing sugar with low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) which can be found in these drinks, as a strategy for weight loss.
"But we know that the consumption of LCS, with other preconception lifestyle and dietary factors, can increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
"The effects of LCS intake during pregnancy on health has had mixed results in other studies, so we aimed to look at the association between preconception and pregnancy artificially sweetened beverage intake and adverse pregnancy outcomes such as gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, and preterm birth."
What the research team found was those who frequently consumed artificially sweetened beverages were also likely to engage in other risk factors.
"Women in the frequent intake group (five or more drinks per week) had a higher pre-pregnancy BMI, were more likely to be current smokers and risky drinkers, reported poorer/fairer health, and were less likely to meet the recommended daily servings of fruit compared to women in the other ASB intake group," says Mr Menota.
"Our findings may underestimate the risk associated with exposure to LCS, as we only assessed intake from three beverages, despite these sweeteners being commonly found in a wide range of processed foods and drinks.
Associate Professor Lassi believed the sweeteners could impact hormones that regulate appetite and metabolism, such as ghrelin and leptin, but more research was needed to explore the potential pathways between the sweeteners and the conditions.
