MADRID. A study by Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlandsshowed that the high consumption of ultra-processed foods It is associated with lower fertility in men, slower fetal growth, and smaller yolk sacs (a membrane essential for embryo development in the first weeks).
The research analyzed how the consumption of this type of food affects men and women before conception and during the first weeks of pregnancy and the results suggest that reducing their intake before conceiving and during pregnancy benefits both the parents and the fetus.
The results of the study, carried out by Erasmus University in Rotterdam, were published this Tuesday, March 24, in Human Reproduction.
Highly processed foods are high in added sugars, salt, saturated and trans fats and additives, and are low in fiber, whole foods and other essential nutrients.
In recent years its consumption has grown very rapidly.
Investigation
Gaillard and her colleagues did the research with 831 women and 651 male couples enrolled in the program. Generation R Study Next, a prospective population-based study that has followed parents from before conception and throughout their children’s childhood.
Couples were included during the preconception period or during pregnancy between 2017 and 2021.
The team evaluated the parents’ diet with a questionnaire at the beginning of pregnancy – around 12 weeks – and classified the foods as unprocessed or highly processed. (All women were pregnant during the study.)
The average consumption of this food category was 22% in the diet of women and 25% in that of men, figures close to the average consumption of ultra-processed foods in the Netherlands, well below countries such as the United Kingdom or the United States where intake is around 50%, recall the authors of the study.
In southern European countries, such as Spain or Italy, the proportion is even lower, between 15 and 20% (Marino et al. 2021).
They also investigated couples’ time to pregnancy, fecundability (the likelihood of conceiving within a month), and subfertility (a time frame of 12 months or more to pregnancy or use of assisted reproductive technology).
Finally, they performed a CCL or crown-rump length, a test that measures the distance between the head and buttocks of the embryo to determine the size and development of the fetus, and measured the volume of the yolk sac at seven, nine and 11 weeks of gestation.
Slower embryonic growth
They observed that the consumption of ultra-processed foods in women was not consistently related to the risk of low fertility or time to pregnancy, but was related to slightly lower embryonic growth and yolk sac size towards the seventh week of gestation (which is associated with a higher risk of spontaneous abortion and preterm birth).
In addition, slower embryonic growth in the first trimester is associated with birth problems, such as preterm birth (before 37 weeks), low birth weight, and a higher risk of heart and blood vessel problems in childhood, the authors recall.
In men, higher consumption of ultra-processed foods was associated with a higher risk of low fertility and a longer duration until pregnancy was achieved, but not with early embryo development.
These results suggest that a diet low in these types of foods would be best for the parents, for the chances of pregnancy, and for the health of the fetus.
Although the authors recognize that since it is an observational study, more research is needed to replicate the results in different populations and study the biological mechanisms, they believe that these results show that we must think more broadly about fertility and pregnancy and pay more attention to men’s health during this period.
