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Review
. 2019 Mar 6;11(3):557.
doi: 10.3390/nu11030557.

The Effects of Vegetarian and Vegan Diet during Pregnancy on the Health of Mothers and Offspring

Giorgia Sebastiani  1 , Ana Herranz Barbero  2 , Cristina Borrás-Novell  3 , Miguel Alsina Casanova  4 , Victoria Aldecoa-Bilbao  5 , Vicente Andreu-Fernández  6 , Mireia Pascual Tutusaus  7 , Silvia Ferrero Martínez  8 , María Dolores Gómez Roig  9 , Oscar García-Algar  10
Affiliations
Review

The Effects of Vegetarian and Vegan Diet during Pregnancy on the Health of Mothers and Offspring

Giorgia Sebastiani et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Vegetarian and vegan diets have increased worldwide in the last decades, according to the knowledge that they might prevent coronary heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Althought plant-based diets are at risk of nutritional deficiencies such as proteins, iron, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, omega-3, and vitamin B12, the available evidence shows that well planned vegetarian and vegan diets may be considered safe during pregnancy and lactation, but they require a strong awareness for a balanced intake of key nutrients. A review of the scientific literature in this field was performed, focusing specifically on observational studies in humans, in order to investigate protective effects elicited by maternal diets enriched in plant-derived foods and possible unfavorable outcomes related to micronutrients deficiencies and their impact on fetal development. A design of pregestational nutrition intervention is required in order to avoid maternal undernutrition and consequent impaired fetal growth.

Keywords: breastfeeding; fetal development; human milk; micronutrients; nutrition; plant-based diets; pregnancy; vegan diets; vegetarian diets.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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