Influence of Maternal Western Dietary Pattern on Offspring Health: A Systematic Review of Previous Studies

Greash, Zahraa; Eldsokey, Alaa; Atia, Alaa

doi:10.21608/ajbas.2023.227755.1167

Influence of Maternal Western Dietary Pattern on Offspring Health: A Systematic Review of Previous Studies

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

¹ Zoology department, Faculty of Science, Port Said university, Port Said, Egypt

² Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Port Said Univ., Egypt.

10.21608/ajbas.2023.227755.1167

Abstract

The importance of maternal nutrition to the health of future generations beside the women health makes it a significant public health issue. So-called “Western diet” is a common unhealthy modern diet pattern that high in calories from refined sugar and fat, poor in fibers, loaded with processed foods and consumed in large quantities. According to the hypothesis of prenatal programming, environmental factors like the mother's "unhealthy diet" can start already in utero and affect the fetus' prenatal development. PubMed and Science direct database were searched from 2000 until February 2023 for eligible studies. Fifty-one relevant articles were included and classified into four categories according to maternal western diet and pregnancy complications; birth outcomes; long-term offspring outcomes as well as the supplementary consumed with it. The following data: study design, study objective, maternal diet period and main findings regarding the offspring health were extracted and presented as a narrative review results due to the heterogeneity of the article design. The studies clearly shows that the maternal western diet pattern before, during pregnancy as well as the lactation whether combined or separate periods increase risk of pregnancy complications beside the disease in later offspring life. Despite the increasing rates of Western-style nutrition, its share of prenatal research is insufficient. Therefore, we recommend paying more attention to this research point in order to raise awareness of the risks of eating this dietary pattern on pregnancy, embryo, newborn, infant, child and adolescent. Also, find solutions to minimize its complication hazards.

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