Mothers Prenatal Baby Fruit intake to Promote Cognitive Development

Most people have heard the old adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” This is an old truth, not just Apple, it is known, in general, eating fruit can reduce various diseases such as heart disease and stroke risks of. But now a new study shows that the benefits of eating fruit as early as in the womb begins.

When the study, published in the “EbioMedicine”, found in the mother during pregnancy eat more fruit producing children under 1 year of age were significantly better developmental test performance. Piush Mandhane, senior author of the study, associate professor of medicine and pediatrics Dental School of the University of Alberta, he used data from the longitudinal development of the baby’s health in Canada – from a national study involving over 3500 from Canada babies and their families.

“We want to be able to determine what factors affect cognitive development,” Mandhane explained. “We found that one of the biggest predictors of cognitive development is the mother fruit intake during pregnancy. Mothers who eat more fruit, the better the child’s cognitive development.”

This study investigated the data from 688 children in Edmonton, and control usually affects children learn and development factors, such as family income, father and mother’s education, and gestational age.

Using traditional intelligence test model, the average IQ (IQ) of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, two-thirds of people will fall between 85 and 115. Mandhane studies have shown that if the mother during pregnancy eat six to seven servings of fruits or fruit juice a day, the baby will be 1 year old score was six or seven.

“It’s quite a big difference, reaching half of the standard deviation,” Mandhane explained. “We know that the longer the child in the womb of time, the longer their development time, a number of fruit per day in a mother’s diet, the benefits brought by the child even more.

Mandhane joint Francois Bolduc, conducted further research, Francois Bolduc is a pediatric neurologist Associate Professor of Medicine and Dentistry, specializing in the genetic basis of human cognition and fruit flies. Both researchers believe that the model of clinical and epidemiological analysis of the combination is a new method that can provide useful new insights for future medical research.

“Drosophila and humans are very different, but surprisingly, they have 85% of the genes of the human brain function related to memory which makes Drosophila genetics to become an important model,” Bolduc Say. “We are very interested in understanding associated with increased prenatal intake of fruit and higher cognitive development between.”

According Bolduc said, the field of learning and memory in fruit flies have a long track record. Several genes are known in the memory of a very important process, and now also been found with intellectual disabilities and autism. In a subsequent series of experiments, he found that an increase in fruit flies antenatal feeding process in favor of a better memory ability after birth, and Mandhane findings of 1-year-old baby like. He believes that this shows that brain function is affected fruit, which the mechanism involved has remained at between evolution and across species retained.

While the results are encouraging, Mandhane cautioned against excessive intake of fruits, because it may bring potential complications, such as gestational diabetes, high birth weight and other natural sugar intake increases related diseases has not been fully studied. Instead, he recommended daily intake of mothers who follow dietary guidelines proposed in Canada, and timely consult their doctor.

Mandhane also said he would continue to work in this field, prenatal detection program insist on eating fruits and benefits for children. He will also seek to determine whether the fruit can affect the function associated with the development and implementation of children’s work, such as planning, organizing and working memory and so on.