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Spina bifida in babies is linked with cornflakes and white bread
By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 23/11/2003)


Pregnant women who eat sugary or highly processed food such as white bread
and cornflakes face double the risk of having malformed babies, according to
new research.

Scientists made the discovery after comparing the diets of mothers whose
babies had so-called neural tube defects such as spina bifida with those of
mothers with normal babies.


      Tanni Grey-Thompson
The study, involving almost 1,000 women, found that the risk of such birth
defects was substantially greater among those who consumed higher levels of
sugar and the highly refined carbohydrates found in potatoes, white bread
and rice and many popular breakfast cereals.

University researchers at the California birth defects monitoring programme
in Berkeley said such foods may double the risk of neural tube defects in
unborn babies, increasing to a fourfold risk among mothers with obesity.

The new findings, reported in the latest issue of the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, add to the growing concern over food products with a
high glycemic index (GI). By producing a surge in blood sugar, the foods
trigger the release of a large amount of insulin, high levels of which have
already been implicated in birth defects.

Dr Ross Welch, a specialist in foetal medicine at Arrowe Park Hospital,
Wirral, Cheshire, said: "Assuming these results have a sound statistical
basis, then this is important. The question we have to ask is what do we do
about it?" Most mothers did not realise the crucial importance of diet in
the first days of pregnancy, Dr Welch said.

"High blood sugar levels have already been linked with foetal abnormality in
diabetes, and this new research seems to be in line with that." He added:
"Preconceptual folic acid is, however, still likely to be more important."

The findings come amid mounting evidence that high GI foods may pose a
significant threat to health. Earlier this year, high GI diets were linked
to 50 to 80 per cent increases in risk of oral and ovarian cancer by
researchers at the Centre for Cancer Research in Aviano, Italy.

Most concern focuses on the role of such food in obesity. Research published
earlier this month by scientists at Oxford Brookes University found that
children given a high GI breakfast of cornflakes, Coco-Pops or white bread
consumed many more calories at lunchtime than those given a low-GI
alternative, such as bran flakes or porridge.

Professor Jeya Henry, who led the research, said that the results supported
evidence that high-GI foods boost appetite while cutting satiety - the
"full" feeling that normally follows a meal. Both are thought to play
important roles in developing obesity.

"It is time we got away from the idea that it is all just a matter of a lack
of self-control and exercise," said Prof Henry. "Every measure to reduce
food intake must be explored. If we are serious about this issue, we need
the Government and the food industry to get together to fund more research
as a matter of urgency."

Within the scientific world there is mounting anger over what is being seen
as foot-dragging by the food industry over its role in the increase in
obesity, which according to official figures is responsible for 30,000
premature deaths a year in Britain.

Neville Rigby, the policy director of the London-based international obesity
task force, said: "The food industry is the solution - they have to be, but
they are not doing enough." However,the food industry insists that the
issues involved are complex. A spokesman for Kellogg's, which makes many
high GI cereals, said: "The science is relatively new and in some areas
controversial. For instance, simply adding milk to cornflakes lowers their
GI, while adding a banana lowers it even further.

"There is very clear evidence that foods such as Kellogg's Corn Flakes,
which are high in carbohydrate and low in fat, play an important role in
helping people reduce fat intakes, maintain weight levels and possibly help
their bodies to better control blood sugar levels."

Parents with children suffering from spina bifida welcomed the research. Su
Scurr, from Tiverton, Devon, whose three-year-old daughter Briony has spina
bifida, said last night: "If these foods are a significant factor then women
need to be made aware of this research. I wouldn't wish what happened to me
on anyone. It was awful. We found out that I was carrying a child with spina
bifida in a scan at about 22 weeks.

"I took folic acid in the two months before I got pregnant and I made sure I
ate lots of fruit and salads but in the past I had eaten quite a bit of
sugar. Who doesn't eat cereals? We need more research into spina bifida."

Mrs Scurr, a full-time mother, who lives with her husband Peter, a
chiropodist, Briony and two other - healthy - children, said abortion was
not an option. "I have no regrets. Briony is lovely."

Tanni Grey-Thompson OBE, who was born with spina bifida and has become
Britain's best-known paralympic athlete, said last night: "These findings
are interesting but you have to put them into context. Living in areas with
heavy industry is also a factor, for example. It is really useful to
encourage women to eat a better diet but there are also financial reasons
why women eat what they do."

Ms Grey-Thompson, who has won 14 paralympic medals and eight medal placings
in the London Marathon, added: "There are a huge number of scary things that
women are told when they become pregnant that can put a lot of guilt on
mothers. Sometimes disability is no one's fault and there is nothing you can
do about it."