Advice that includes food sources of unsaturated fat supports future risk management of gestational diabetes mellitus

Women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and heart disease than pregnant women without GDM. Advice given during the GDM pregnancy provides an opportunity to develop protective dietary patterns for the long-term management of this risk. Dietary guidelines for the prevention and management of type 2 DM support the inclusion of unsaturated fats, but food advice needs to target this outcome. The aim of this study was to compare the dietary intakes of women with GDM given general low-fat advice (control group) to women with GDM given the same advice with additional targets for food sources of unsaturated fats (intervention group). After approximately 6 weeks, the intervention group reported more ideal dietary fatty acid intakes than the control group, with polyunsaturated: saturated fat ratios of 1:1 and 0.4:1, respectively (P<.001), assessed using repeated measures analysis of variance. These results confirm the need to include food sources of unsaturated fats in advice strategies to assure optimal protective eating habits in this at-risk group.