Experts recommend to have folic acid before getting pregnant and continuing until the third month of pregnancy. According to Cristina Campoy Folgoso, “the mothers-to-be must be well-nourished when they become pregnant”. It is not always the case, according to the data of the study coordinated by a Professor of the Department of Pediatrics of the UGR in the section of pregnant women of the European project NUNHEAL on the so-called functional nutrients, essential as they are not produced in the organism. That is the case of fatty acids precursor of the omega 3 and 6 that must be provided by the diet.
The results of the study, comparing a group of 155 women and their children with groups from Budapest (Hungary) and Münich (Germany) go further away, as we can gather that more than the 73% of such women are lacking in folic acid during pregnancy. Therefore, according to Campoy, “we should think about increasing the supplement of folic acid supplied in the first three months of gestation to all the pregnancy”.
To come to these conclusions, four groups of study were formed, on the basis of the supplement they were supplied with: supplements of DHA (polyunsaturated fatty acid, present in blue fish), 5-MTHF (precursor molecule of folic acid) or both, between the 12 and 40 weeks of pregnancy. The members of one of these groups were not supplied with any complement.
Disease prevention
Analytics were carried out to see the impact in pregnant women and their children, in the weeks 20 and 30, as well as during delivery. Previous studies with animals suggest that the presence of such functional nutrients influences a better mental and neurological development of the child, of the immune system, as well as in disease prevention such as atherosclerosis, allergy, diabetes or obesity.
The work directed by Campoy Folgoso is confirming this hypothesis in humans. A beneficial effect has been checked in mothers supplied with DHA and their newborns. Although the monitoring of the children is currently being carried out and will last until the year 2010, which is the period covered by the extension of the NUNHEAL project, the available data make clear that Mediterranean diet, rich in folic acid and essential fatty acids, is not as followed in the south of Spain as thought, despite the apparent high fish consumption in this area.
Referencia: Prof. Cristina Campoy Folgoso.
Phone number: 958 244051 / 629 308695.
E-mail: ccampoy@ugr.es
