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Gestational diabetes is one of the most common complications in pregnant women. We talk about it when elevated blood glucose levels are found for the first time during pregnancy. Usually this diagnosis is made between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. An increase in glycaemia earlier in pregnancy may, in turn, indicate type II diabetes that was not diagnosed before pregnancy.
Why is gestational diabetes dangerous?
Returning to the topic of our article, however, gestational diabetes is dangerous because it increases the risk of:
- birth defects,
- fetal death,
- excessive growth of the child,
- circulatory disorders in a child,
- perinatal injuries, both in the child and in the mother,
- hypoglycaemia in a child.
Women who are most at risk of developing gestational diabetes:
- have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes in previous pregnancies,
- are overweight or obese,
- are over 35 years old,
- have high blood pressure (before pregnancy),
- have given birth to more than 2 children,
- have type 2 diabetes in their family.
Diet – gestational diabetes
If you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, you will need to follow a special diet based on foods with a low glycemic index (GI).
| What is the IG indicator? |
|---|
| It is an indicator that allows you to rank food products depending on how quickly blood glucose increases after eating them. The lower the index values, the better! |
Your diet in this situation should be based on 4-6 meals a day, eaten every 2,5 – 3 hours. You should still base your nutrition on the food pyramid, but you should choose specific foods from each group.
Recommendations – gestational diabetes
| Pyramid floor | This you can eat | Give it up |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetables and fruits | Fresh vegetables and fruits (except those containing more sugar) | Fruits containing a lot of sugar: grapes, bananas, plums, mangoes. Dried and candied fruit. Fruit preserves: jams, marmalades, preserves, juices. Overcooked vegetables. |
| Grain products | Whole grain products such as: wholemeal bread, brown rice, coarse grain groats. Cereal flakes without added sugar (oat, barley, rye). Occasionally you can use bright noodles, or pale bread. | Confectionery bread. Store sweets. Overcooked pasta or rice. Bread with caramel, honey or barley malt. |
| Dairy | Fermented dairy products: kefir, buttermilk, yogurt. Natural curd cheeses. Milk in moderate amounts (due to lactose). | Sweet dairy products (flavored yoghurts and cheese, fruit buttermilk). |
| Meat, fish, eggs and pods | Lean meats: chicken, turkey, veal, rabbit. Fresh fish. Eggs. Legume seeds. | Fatty meats: pork, offal, sausages, goose, duck. |
| Fats | Vegetable oils, olive oil. Nuts, almonds, seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds). | Margarine. Animal fats (e.g. lard). |
| Beverages | Water. Weak infusions of tea. | Carbonated drinks. Fruit juices. Grain coffee. Drinks sweetened with sugar, honey. Alcohol. |
An even more accurate indicator than IG is the glycemic load (GL) – it takes into account not only the type of carbohydrates present in the product, but also their amount in a portion of the product. It is calculated according to the formula:
W – amount of digestible carbohydrates [g] in a portion of the product, IG – glycemic index (constant value for a given product, reading from the tables of IG values).
If you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, you should rely on products with a low GG and avoid those with high:
– low ŁG 20
Simply put, GL allows you to eat a product that has a high GI, as long as the serving size is small. This means that you can introduce the products from the table above from the “give it up” column to your diet, as long as you include the appropriate portion of them.
For gestational diabetes, however, we recommend that you use this indicator only for the first level of the food pyramid, i.e. vegetables and fruit. Thanks to this, you will be able to introduce, for example, a slice of watermelon or a banana slice into your diet. In the case of the remaining floors, however, we recommend that you stick to the above table and do not use the products indicated in it.
Following this diet in gestational diabetes usually results in normal blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. However, even if your results normalize, remember that you must follow this diet until the birth. What’s more, you should systematically monitor your blood glucose levels after you have given up. This is important because about 50% of women diagnosed with gestational diabetes develop full-blown type II diabetes or carbohydrate intolerance within 5-10 years after giving birth.
Gestational diabetes and a low GI diet
Unfortunately, in some women, the use of a low GI diet does not help regulate blood glucose levels. What can you do in this situation? You will definitely need to consult a doctor, the doctor may recommend a reduced calorie diet (usually not less than 1800 kcal), and initiate insulin treatment.
At the end, we invite you to watch the webinar in which Mum-dietitian Marta Tomaszewska talks not only about gestational diabetes, but also about weight loss during pregnancy, “forbidden” products and recommendations for future and present mothers.