ARTICLE
Improving diet, increasing physical activity, and reducing sedentary time among obese pregnant women seems to have a knock-on effect on their babies, who were born with lower fat mass than the offspring of women in control groups, a new analysis of the Vitamin D and Lifestyle Intervention study for gestational diabetes prevention (DALI) trial has shown.
Mireille van Poppel, PhD, from the Institute of Sport Science, University of Graz, Austria,presented the results athe European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2019 Annual Meeting.
Of interest, "It was the sedentary behavior that seems to be responsible for the change in neonatal body composition [according to leptin and skinfold measurements], not the reduction in gestational weight as many people might have thought," remarked van Poppel in an interview with Medscape Medical News.
She stressed that this is one of the first reports of a link between the two and the finding about sedentary time provides an important message for public health.
"Sitting less, getting out of a chair, and pottering around the house can be effective in terms of health benefits, which might be easier to do, especially in pregnancy, than having to be more active by going to a fitness center or gym," she said.
