Eating Too Much Sugar in Pregnancy – Side Effects and Tips to Reduce It

Pregnancy is a time of intense cravings and aversions, even for items you never had. While you can manage to squeeze in light workouts and relax enough to sleep on time, diet seems to be the most challenging of all. You’ll often hear about sweet cravings, but it is important to remember the effects of excess sugar during your pregnancy. You may plan to have 2-3 servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and include enough folate in your diet, but you crave a big chocolate cake instead.

While it is alright to indulge once in a while, overeating sugar in pregnancy may not be good for your baby. It may put you at risk of gestational diabetes and also could potentially cause an unhealthy affinity for sugary foods in your child at a future stage. So, how much is too much? Let’s find out everything you need to know about eating sugar during pregnancy.

Is It Safe to Eat Sugar While Pregnant?

Sugar is safe during pregnancy as long as it is consumed in moderation. However, if you are pre-diabetic or have gestational diabetes, you must be extremely careful about your sugar intake.

Most of the sugary items, like cookies, sweets, candies, cakes, sweet baked items, and soft drinks, contain refined sugar, which hs zero nutrition and only inflames the body. As a healthier alternative, try jaggery, dates, or honey to sweeten your food. These, too, should be consumed in limited quantities; after all, they are also sugar.

If you crave sugary items, try replacing them with healthier options like a banana, apple, vegetable salad, and whole grains to get natural sugar for optimal fetal health.

What Amount of Sugar Can Be Safely Consumed During Pregnancy

While there are no standardised recommendations for the amount of sugar to be consumed during pregnancy, it is best to consume it with caution. The amount of sugar you can safely consume during pregnancy depends on your blood sugar levels, your weight and your metabolic rate. Either way, it is best not to exceed 25 gm of sugar during pregnancy in one day.

Can Overeating Sugar in Pregnancy Harm the Baby?

Even when not pregnant, overconsumption of sugar-rich foods and carbohydrates affects your health negatively. During pregnancy, this could adversely affect you and the baby. Excess sugar can travel through the placenta to the baby and increase the baby’s blood sugar levels. This will, in turn, lead to excess insulin production in the baby’s body and can lead to the baby being born larger than normal. Delivering a baby too large can lead to delivery issues and necessary c-sections. It could also lead to a premature birth (1).

Consumption of too much sugar when pregnant also alters the baby’s brain for sugar items when they are born and get older. In fact, maternal sugar intake, as well as pre-pregnancy, can impact a baby’s cognitive development (2).

According to the Cleveland Clinic, another instance was recorded when researchers found that pregnant women who consumed diet soda in excess had an increased risk of their babies having poor cognitive skills, including verbal memory and non-verbal abilities to solve problems (3).

Side Effects of Too Much Sugar During Pregnancy

We’ve already discussed the possible side effects of overconsumption of sugar in pregnancy, but there are more reasons to avoid sugar in excess. Here’s what sugar during pregnancy does to you:

1. It Causes Lethargy and Fatigue

Sugar and sugar-laden foods provide empty calories and no nutrition. The only energy spike you may feel is from the burst of sucrose that hits your blood steam but then rapidly drops as well. This leaves you feeling lethargic and low on energy.

2. It Causes Weight Gain

The fact that excess sugar causes weight gain is a common one. During pregnancy, your body naturally gains weight to support the growing baby. This natural weight gain, coupled with excess sugar, can lead to obesity and birth complications.

3. It Could Lead to Grade 1 Fatty Liver

A pregnancy diet with a high count of sugar can lead to acute fatty liver syndrome. It can also hamper the fetus’ metabolic rate and lead to obesity in the future. It also puts the baby at risk of type 2 diabetes in the future (4).

4. It Aggravates Pregnancy Symptoms

Common pregnancy symptoms like nausea, vomiting, mood swings and heartburn get even more intense when sugar is consumed in excess.

5. It Increases the Risk of Preeclampsia

The higher the sugar intake of the pregnant woman, the more the risk of preeclampsia (5).

6. It Can Make Your Baby Crave More Sugar

Your baby’s taste buds can permanently be affected by your overconsumption of sugar during pregnancy. Once grown, the child may excessively crave sugary foods, and this might lead to diabetes and obesity early in life.

7. It Could Lead to Nutritional Deficiency

While cravings are completely normal during pregnancy, if you crave more sweets than wholesome foods, you might suffer a deficiency of actual nutrients you may need.

8. It is Linked to Autism

The exposure of the uterus to high blood sugar could affect the brain development of the baby. This would increase the chances of developmental disorders.

Tips To Reduce Sugar Consumption in Pregnancy

To avoid the risk of the above-mentioned complications, here are some tips to reduce sugar cravings and consumption during pregnancy:

1. Include more fruits

One way to satisfy sweet cravings is to eat sweeter fruits like mangoes, pineapples and strawberries. Try and limit fruit juices as they contain more sugar than fibre (6).

2. Limit processed sugar in snacks

Refined sugar needs to be avoided during pregnancy altogether. However, if you’re finding that hard to do, try and cut down on ice-creams, cakes, pastries, and other dessert items that contain too much sugar.

3. Read labels on packed foods carefully

Check for the hidden sugar in packaged items that you eat, like ketchup, peanut butter, cereal, etc. Pick ones that have a lower sugar content.

4. Keep junk food out of reach

Keeping junk food around the house is tempting and may cause unnecessary snacking. Buy them only when you crave them badly.

5. Ditch artificial sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners are harmful to the body in the long run, so opt for kinder alternatives like honey, jaggery or palm sugar.

6. Limit if not avoid

If you cannot ditch sugar completely, limit the intake during pregnancy. Have one teaspoon instead of two with your cup of tea.

Foods That Lower Blood Sugar in Pregnant Women

If you are mid-pregnancy, and your blood sugar level is higher than normal, here are some healthy foods to include in your diet. Along with exercise, these foods help lower blood pressure during pregnancy.

1. Low-glycemic foods

Whole grains, beans, barley, fruits, oats and vegetables are all low on the glycemic index. These foods take longer to digest, which prevents a sudden spike in blood sugar levels.

2. Fiber-rich Foods

Soluble fibre, as found in oats and legumes, improves blood sugar levels. Whole wheat foods contain insoluble fibres, which maintain digestive health. Fruits and vegetables contain both types of fibres.

3. Probiotics

These stomach-friendly bacteria are great for digestive health. They maintain blood sugar levels. Dahi or yoghurt is the best probiotic to consume (7).

4. Protein-rich foods and healthy fats

Poultry, eggs and nuts fall into this food group. Protein helps control blood sugar as well as keeps you more energetic and full for longer. Nuts, olive oil and avocados contain healthy fats. These also keep you full longer and keep cravings for unhealthy food at bay.

FAQs

1. Is it possible to have complications like birth defects due to having sugar in pregnancy?

If the sugar intake is not controlled and glucose levels are not moderated, it could cause severe birth defects in the baby. Brain and spine deformities or congenital heart disease can be seen (8).

2. Can sugar cause miscarriage?

No, there is no evidence to suggest any termination of pregnancy due to excess sugar consumption. It can cause several other health issues, though.

3. Can high blood sugar during pregnancy result in autism in an unborn baby?

According to research, maternal gestational diabetes or high blood sugar in early pregnancy has a long-lasting effect on an offspring’s organ development and function, which may increase the likelihood of development disorders like autism. However, the autism risk in children doesn’t increase if the mother develops gestational diabetes after 26 weeks of pregnancy (9).

4. How to put a stop to sugar consumption during pregnancy?

There are no specific ways or guidelines to stop sugar consumption during pregnancy. Consulting a doctor about this issue will help you find the best possible ways to safeguard yourself.

We know sugar is addictive, which is why it’s hard to quit it. This is why filling yourself up on the above-mentioned foods kicks the craving. Remember, this is to ensure that your health and your baby’s health remain at its optimum. Replace white, refined sugar with natural sugars, and you should be healthy and your baby safe during pregnancy.

References/Resources:

1. James-Todd. T. M, et al.; Gestational Age, Infant Birth Weight, and Subsequent Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Mothers: Nurses’ Health Study II; CDC; https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2013/12_0336.htm; September 2013

2. Cohen. J. F. W, et al.; Associations of Prenatal and Child Sugar Intake With Child Cognition; American Journal of Preventive Medicine; https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(18)31606-4/abstract; June 2018

3. Sad but True: Diet Sodas Are Bad for Your Health; Cleveland Clinic; https://health.clevelandclinic.org/3-reasons-you-should-kick-your-diet-soda-habit; May 2023

4. Ko. H, Yoshida. E. M; Acute fatty liver of pregnancy; Can J Gastroenterology and Hepatology; PubMed Central; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2538964/; January 2006

5. Borgen. I, et al.; Maternal sugar consumption and risk of preeclampsia in nulliparous Norwegian women; Eur J Clin Nutr.; PubMed; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22713766/; August 2012

6. Moms-to-Be: Too Much Sugar During Pregnancy Can Hurt Your Child’s Brain Function; Cleveland Clinic; https://health.clevelandclinic.org/moms-to-be-too-much-sugar-during-pregnancy-can-hurt-your-childs-brain-function

7. Elias. J, Bozzo. P, Einarson. A; Are probiotics safe for use during pregnancy and lactation?; Can Fam Physician.; PubMed Central; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3056676/; March 2011

8. Gripp. K. W, et al.; Costello syndrome: Clinical phenotype, genotype, and management guidelines; Am J Med Genet A.; PubMed Central; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8238015/; September 2019

9. HSC News; University of Southern California; https://hscnews.usc.edu/archives/pdf15/2.8.pdf; April 2015

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