How Much Do Pregnant Women Adhere to a Healthy Dietary Pattern? Dietary Changes throughout the Last Trimester of Pregnancy—The Dastatuz Trial ^†

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables (FV) are part of a healthy diet. How does a FV-rich diet during pregnancy influence the forthcoming baby’s eating behavior? The Dastatuz project aims to answer this question. Two groups were established: mothers with a standard FV intake (SD) and mothers with a higher FV intake (HFV). This study examined the dietary profiles of both groups (n = 110) during the last trimester of pregnancy as well as sociodemographic aspects and feeding expectations. The participants did not differ in their baseline characteristics but showed significantly different dietary patterns. At the seventh month of pregnancy, 54.5% and 38.2% of the participants met the recommendations for fruit and vegetables intake, respectively. After 2 months of dietary follow-up, the percentages increased to 72.6% for fruits and 56.2% for vegetables. In both time points, the HFV group had a higher FV intake compared to the SD group. In conclusion, a current picture of food intake during pregnancy was offered, based on a Western European population. The results suggested that, still, further efforts should be made to encourage an increase in FV intake. The Dastatuz project is an ongoing program; therefore, the results will be updated in future publications. Meanwhile, these preliminary results confirmed that the control and intervention groups were comparable, as they only differed in their diet. This will make it possible to study “mothers’ FV intake” as a possible early factor influencing children’s future eating behaviors.