The Mediterranean diet can reduce prenatal stress and improve the child's health indicators. It was also found how such a choice can improve the health indicators of young children of different ethnic groups. How exactly?
Physiological stressors associated with pregnancy often cause inflammatory conditions that can create future health problems for both the mother and the child. According to research, switching to a Mediterranean diet during pregnancy can reduce the likelihood of a mother developing a depressive mood disorder or obesity before pregnancy. In addition, this type of diet can also reduce the level of obesity in children and it will be much easier to lose weight after childbirth. It is obvious that the mother's eating habits affect the behavior of the offspring within 24 months after birth and suggest a connection with epigenetic mechanisms.
This is important because approximately every tenth woman of reproductive age suffers from depression, while 29% of childbearing women are obese. These conditions correlate with childhood obesity, problems with the development of the nervous system in children and chronic diseases of both mother and child later in life.
It's never too late to start eating right. The authors of the study noted that their results showed a positive relationship between following the Mediterranean diet from the moment of conception, reducing depression and improving the weight-to-height ratio in children aged three to eight years.