Cioffi CE, et al. - Physicians designed this study to evaluate intake and to identify the top sources of added sugars in the diets of pregnant vs nonpregnant women in the United States. Pregnant women had higher energy intakes, however, this was not attributed to higher intakes of added sugar. Although education and income affected consumption during pregnancy, intake of added sugar among all women exceeded recommendations, regardless of pregnancy status.

Methods

• From 2003-2004 to 2011-2012, the physicians performed this cross-sectional analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
• They enrolled 4,179 pregnant and nonpregnant women (aged 20 to 39 years) who completed a dietary recall.
• They used survey-weighted analyses to estimate means (95% CIs) in total grams and as a percentage of total energy for added sugar intake by pregnancy status and by demographic subgroup and to identify leading sources of added sugar.

Results

• In pregnant women added sugar intake trended toward being higher compared with nonpregnant women in absolute grams, 85.1 g (95% CI: 77.4 to 92.7) vs 76.7 g (95% CI: 73.6 to 79.9), respectively (P=0.06).
• Nevertheless, it was lower among pregnant women when total energy intake was accounted for, 14.8% (95% CI: 13.8 to 15.7) vs 15.9% (95% CI: 15.2 to 16.6) of total energy, respectively (P=0.03).
• Added sugar intake was similar among demographic subgroups, in pregnant women.
• Multivariable regression revealed that pregnancy status markedly modified the associations of education and income with added sugar intake.
• Less educated and lower-income women who were pregnant had lower added sugar intakes compared with those who were not pregnant, however, more educated or higher-income women did not exhibit this pattern.
• Sugar-sweetened beverages; cakes, cookies, and pastries; sugars and sweets; juice drinks and smoothies; and milk-based desserts were the top 5 sources of added sugar for all women.