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Mediterranean Diet Promotes Healthy Weight During Pregnancy

ByElena Paravantes, MS, RD

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I am not one to promote weight loss during pregnancy, but I do promote appropriate weight gain with the right foods. Numerous times I have seen pregnant women receive conflicting and often wrong information regarding their weight during pregnancy. Some women are encouraged to even go on a “diet” sometimes gaining minimal weight, eager to get back in their normal clothes right after the baby. My mother recalls in the 70’s her obstetrician even giving her a prescription for an appetite suppressant during her pregnancy (and she was not overweight). Others gain too much, and still others believe that it is their chance to eat junk food. Research has shown time and time again that too little weight gain as well as too much weight gain can affect the baby, but research has also shown that the quality of the diet also affects the child.

But how about a diet that tastes good, is good for you and can protect you from gaining more weight then normal during pregnancy? Yes, I am talking about the Mediterranean diet.

In this new study, Spanish researchers found an association between compliance to the Mediterranean diet and weight gain during pregnancy. Their results showed that pregnant women who were already a following a Mediterranean diet before they got pregnant, maintained a normal weight gain during pregnancy, but they also found that women who followed a Mediterranean diet during pregnancy also had reduced weight gain and protection from obesity during pregnancy.

So the message here is: Start following Mediterranean diet even if you are not pregnant, but if you are already pregnant, starting to follow a Mediterranean diet will help you maintain a normal weight gain during your pregnancy.

The study was published in the journal Nutricion Hospitalaria, you can read it here.

Elena Paravantes, MS, RDN is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist by the U.S. Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). She is an expert on the Mediterranean Diet. She has been active as a clinician, consultant, author and lecturer for 20 years, both in the U.S. and Greece. An expert on the Greek Mediterranean Diet, her interviews and articles have been published in many publications including CNN, U.S. News and World Report, Prevention, NPR, and Shape. Elena has collaborated with a number of organizations including Loyola University, Yale University, University of Missouri, Louisiana State University, and the American College of Greece. Elena earned her Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition and Dietetics and her Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds has a Master’s Degree of Science in Health Management.

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6 Comments

  1. Hi Elena,
    This information is great to read. I am wondering if you have information (or know of resources) around how this traditional diet changes as a woman develops throughout her life including pregnancy (do Cretan woman still eat feta?) and then supporting an infant from their first solids onwards (what was traditionally the first solids fed?)? Thanks 😀

    Reply

  3. Question:

    I’ve always heard that eating dinner early is healthier (glycogen storage, hormonal synthesis, insulin and melatonin levels, etc.). And yet promoted with the same rigor is the Mediterranean diet which, ingredients aside and if you’ve ever been to Spain, usually entails eating dinner at ridiculously late hours.

    Anybody wanna give a shot at reconciling this for me?

    Thanks!

    Reply