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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2014 Jul 23;6(7):2946-55.
doi: 10.3390/nu6072946.

Maternal diet and weight at 3 months postpartum following a pregnancy intervention with a low glycaemic index diet: results from the ROLO randomised control trial

Mary K Horan  1 , Ciara A McGowan  2 , Eileen R Gibney  3 , Jean M Donnelly  4 , Fionnuala M McAuliffe  5
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Maternal diet and weight at 3 months postpartum following a pregnancy intervention with a low glycaemic index diet: results from the ROLO randomised control trial

Mary K Horan et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Pregnancy increases the risk of being overweight at a later time period, particularly when there is excessive gestational weight gain. There remains a paucity of data into the effect of low glycaemic index (GI) pregnancy interventions postpartum.

Aim: To examine the impact of a low glycaemic index diet during pregnancy on maternal diet 3 months postpartum.

Methodology: This analysis examined the diet, weight and lifestyle of 460 participants of the ROLO study 3 months postpartum. Questionnaires on weight, physical activity, breastfeeding, supplement use, food label reading and dietary habits were completed.

Results: The intervention group had significantly greater weight loss from pre-pregnancy to 3 months postpartum than the control group (1.3 vs. 0.1 kg, p = 0.022). The intervention group reported greater numbers following a low glycaemic index diet (p < 0.001) and reading food labels (p = 0.032) and had a lower glycaemic load (GL) (128 vs. 145, p = 0.014) but not GI (55 vs. 55, p = 0.809) than controls.

Conclusions: Low GI dietary interventions in pregnancy result in improved health-behaviours and continued reported compliance at 3 months postpartum possibly through lower dietary GL as a result of portion control. Greater levels of weight loss from pre-pregnancy to 3 months postpartum in the intervention group may have important positive implications for overweight and obesity.

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