Consumption of even small amounts of garlic or raisins are associated with significantly lower risk of pregnant women going into premature labor or having their water break too soon.
Garlic & Raisins to Prevent Premature Birth
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The United States has one of the highest premature birth rates in the world, now ranking 131st worldwide. Even worse, over the last few decades, the rate of preterm birth in the U.S. has been going up.
We’ve known that preterm delivery is associated with significant problems during infancy, and almost three quarters of all infant deaths, but even preemies who survive past infancy may carry a legacy of health issues, such as behavioral problems and moderate to severe neurodevelopmental disabilities and psychiatric disorders in half of those born extremely preterm by the time they reach school-age. There’s even evidence now that adults born very premature are at increased risk for things like heart disease and diabetes. And babies don’t even have to be born that premature to suffer long-term effects. Even so-called near-term births at 36 or 37 weeks are now thought to be related to subtle developmental problems. So what can pregnant women do to decrease this risk?
I’ve talked about avoiding aspartame and diet soda consumption during pregnancy, but what about food? 66,000 pregnant women were studied to examine whether an association exists between maternal dietary patterns and risk of preterm delivery. They compared a so-called “prudent” diet which was more plant-based versus a Western or traditional Scandinavian diet. (for example, vegetables, fruits, oils, water as beverage, whole grain cereals, fiber rich bread), “Western” (salty and sweet snacks, white bread, desserts, processed meat products), and found that the “prudent” pattern was associated with significantly reduced risk of preterm delivery. The findings suggest that diet matters, but why and how?
Well inflammation is thought to play a role in triggering delivery, and so a diet characterized by high intakes of vegetables, fruit, and berries can reduce both systemic and local inflammation and the lower saturated fat levels would also associated with reduced inflammation. Any foods in particular?
Well since a significant percentage of preterm deliveries are thought to be related to infections and inflammatory conditions in the genital tract, what about looking into garlic. Garlic is well-known for its antimicrobial properties, and also has probiotic dietary fibers that feed our good bacteria. Speaking of which, dried fruit are packed with fiber and also have antimicrobial activities against some of the bacteria suspected to play a role in preterm delivery. So they studied the garlic, onion, and dried fruit intake of nearly 19,000 pregnant women, and indeed, they observed a reduced risk of spontaneous preterm delivery related to groups of garlic and onion family vegetables and dried fruits. In particular, garlic stood out for the vegetables and raisins for the dried fruit, was associated with a reduced risk of both preterm delivery and preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes, which means your water breaking prematurely, before 37 weeks. And it didn’t seem to take much. The so-called “high” garlic intake associated with the lowest risk was just about one clove a week or more, and “high” raisin intake was defined as just like one of those mini snack boxes of raisins a month.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- B Ki-moon. Born Too Soon. WHO 2014.
- L Englund-Ogge, A L Brantsaeter, V Sengpiel, M Haugen, B E Birgisdottir, R Myhre, H M Meltzer, B Jacobsson. Maternal dietary patterns and preterm delivery: results from large prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2014 Mar 4;348:g1446.
- R Myhre, A L Brantsaeter, S Myking, M Eggesbo, H M Meltzer, M Haugen, B Jacobsson. Intakes of Garlic and Dried fruits are associated with lower risk of spontaneous preterm delivery. J Nutr. 2013 Jul;143(7):1100-8.
- J L Howse. M Katz Conquering Prematurity. Pediatrics. 2013 Jan;131(1):1-2.
- S Johnson, N Marlow. Growing up after extremely preterm birth: Lifespan mental health outcomes. Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2014 Apr;19(2):97-104.
- E Kajantie, P Hovi. Is very preterm birth a risk factor for adult cardiometabolic disease? Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2014 Apr;19(2):112-7.
- I S Baron, F R Litman, M D Ahronovich. R Baker. Late Preterm Birth: A Review of Medical and Nueropsychological Childhood Outcomes. Neuropsychol Rev. 2012 Dec;22(4):438-50.
- J C Harris, S L Cottrell, S Plummer, D Lloyd. Antimicrobial properties of Allium sativum (Garlic). Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2001 Oct;57(3):282-6.
- E Arpi, F Ferrari. Preterm birth and behavior problems in infants and preschool-age children: a review of the recent literature. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2013 Sep;55(9):788-96.
Images thanks to cartersbebemom via Pixabay.
The United States has one of the highest premature birth rates in the world, now ranking 131st worldwide. Even worse, over the last few decades, the rate of preterm birth in the U.S. has been going up.
We’ve known that preterm delivery is associated with significant problems during infancy, and almost three quarters of all infant deaths, but even preemies who survive past infancy may carry a legacy of health issues, such as behavioral problems and moderate to severe neurodevelopmental disabilities and psychiatric disorders in half of those born extremely preterm by the time they reach school-age. There’s even evidence now that adults born very premature are at increased risk for things like heart disease and diabetes. And babies don’t even have to be born that premature to suffer long-term effects. Even so-called near-term births at 36 or 37 weeks are now thought to be related to subtle developmental problems. So what can pregnant women do to decrease this risk?
I’ve talked about avoiding aspartame and diet soda consumption during pregnancy, but what about food? 66,000 pregnant women were studied to examine whether an association exists between maternal dietary patterns and risk of preterm delivery. They compared a so-called “prudent” diet which was more plant-based versus a Western or traditional Scandinavian diet. (for example, vegetables, fruits, oils, water as beverage, whole grain cereals, fiber rich bread), “Western” (salty and sweet snacks, white bread, desserts, processed meat products), and found that the “prudent” pattern was associated with significantly reduced risk of preterm delivery. The findings suggest that diet matters, but why and how?
Well inflammation is thought to play a role in triggering delivery, and so a diet characterized by high intakes of vegetables, fruit, and berries can reduce both systemic and local inflammation and the lower saturated fat levels would also associated with reduced inflammation. Any foods in particular?
Well since a significant percentage of preterm deliveries are thought to be related to infections and inflammatory conditions in the genital tract, what about looking into garlic. Garlic is well-known for its antimicrobial properties, and also has probiotic dietary fibers that feed our good bacteria. Speaking of which, dried fruit are packed with fiber and also have antimicrobial activities against some of the bacteria suspected to play a role in preterm delivery. So they studied the garlic, onion, and dried fruit intake of nearly 19,000 pregnant women, and indeed, they observed a reduced risk of spontaneous preterm delivery related to groups of garlic and onion family vegetables and dried fruits. In particular, garlic stood out for the vegetables and raisins for the dried fruit, was associated with a reduced risk of both preterm delivery and preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes, which means your water breaking prematurely, before 37 weeks. And it didn’t seem to take much. The so-called “high” garlic intake associated with the lowest risk was just about one clove a week or more, and “high” raisin intake was defined as just like one of those mini snack boxes of raisins a month.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- B Ki-moon. Born Too Soon. WHO 2014.
- L Englund-Ogge, A L Brantsaeter, V Sengpiel, M Haugen, B E Birgisdottir, R Myhre, H M Meltzer, B Jacobsson. Maternal dietary patterns and preterm delivery: results from large prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2014 Mar 4;348:g1446.
- R Myhre, A L Brantsaeter, S Myking, M Eggesbo, H M Meltzer, M Haugen, B Jacobsson. Intakes of Garlic and Dried fruits are associated with lower risk of spontaneous preterm delivery. J Nutr. 2013 Jul;143(7):1100-8.
- J L Howse. M Katz Conquering Prematurity. Pediatrics. 2013 Jan;131(1):1-2.
- S Johnson, N Marlow. Growing up after extremely preterm birth: Lifespan mental health outcomes. Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2014 Apr;19(2):97-104.
- E Kajantie, P Hovi. Is very preterm birth a risk factor for adult cardiometabolic disease? Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2014 Apr;19(2):112-7.
- I S Baron, F R Litman, M D Ahronovich. R Baker. Late Preterm Birth: A Review of Medical and Nueropsychological Childhood Outcomes. Neuropsychol Rev. 2012 Dec;22(4):438-50.
- J C Harris, S L Cottrell, S Plummer, D Lloyd. Antimicrobial properties of Allium sativum (Garlic). Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2001 Oct;57(3):282-6.
- E Arpi, F Ferrari. Preterm birth and behavior problems in infants and preschool-age children: a review of the recent literature. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2013 Sep;55(9):788-96.
Images thanks to cartersbebemom via Pixabay.
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Title
Garlic & Raisins to Prevent Premature Birth
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Here’s the video on aspartame (NutraSweet) and diet soda during pregnancy: Diet Soda and Preterm Birth.
Some other popular pregnancy videos include:
- The Wrong Way to Detox
- Preventing Childhood Allergies
- Meat Fumes: Dietary Secondhand Smoke
- Chamomile Tea May Not Be Safe During Pregnancy
- Hair Testing for Mercury Before Considering Pregnancy
- Bacon, Eggs, and Gestational Diabetes During Pregnancy
More on garlic in:
- Cancer, Interrupted: Garlic and Flavenoids
- Inhibiting Platelet Activation with Garlic & Onions
- Benefits of Garlic Powder for Heart Disease
- Benefits of Garlic for Fighting Cancer & the Common Cold
Videos on dried fruit include:
- Better Than Goji Berries
- Do Fruit & Nut Bars Cause Weight Gain?
- Dried Apples, Dates, Figs, or Prunes for Cholesterol?
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