The acidity of early pregnancy diet and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus

Backgrounds & aims: Recently, an increasing interest has been addressed to the acid-base imbalance in the pathogenesis of diabetes while we are not aware of any study among patients affected by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Therefore, the purpose of present study was to reveal the potential relation between dietary acid load (DAL) and glycemic indices, lipid profiles and GDM odds ratio among Iranian pregnant women with GDM. Methods: This case-control study (hospital-based setting) was performed in singleton fetus pregnant women; healthy (n = 263) and GDM (n = 200), aged 22-44 years, and between weeks 5-28 of pregnancy. Three-day 24-h dietary records were applied to determine usual intakes of women. The tertiles of protein to potassium ratio (Pr/K) and potential renal acid load (PRAL) were calculated and used for statistical analyses. Results: Across tertiles of both DAL scores, fasting blood sugar, HbA1C, total cholesterol and LDL-C increased significantly. Diastolic blood pressure of participants significantly increased only across the tertiles of Pr/K ratio. Participants in the highest tertile of Pr/K and PRAL had more than 7 (OR = 7.60; 95% CI: 3.43-16.84) and 9 times (OR = 9.27; 95% CI: 4.00-21.46) increased odds of gestational diabetes mellitus, respectively. Conclusion: Women with higher scores of DAL were more likely to have gestational diabetes mellitus during pregnancy. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.