Researchers take dim view on whether supplements meet nutritional needs of pregnant women
Researchers have concluded that the supplement industry is not meeting the needs of pregnant women.
Few dietary supplements meet the nutritional needs of pregnant women, new research asserts.
The new research was published last week in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It was the work of a large team led by Katherine Sauder, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado’s School of Public Health.
In the paper titled “Selecting a dietary supplement with appropriate dosing for 6 key nutrients in pregnancy,” Sauder and her team took a two-pronged approach.
First, they gathered population-based survey data to assess the nutritional status of pregnant women in this country. The researchers used data from the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.
Data culled from large population survey
They collected dietary data from 2,450 participants from six cohorts across five states. This consisted of 24-hour dietary recalls that were either self-administered or conducted with the help of a reviewer. About two-thirds of the participants completed two or fewer such recalls; the remainder completed three or more.
The cohorts generally reflected the U.S. population at large in terms of demographics and educational status. The makeup of the study population reflected the ongoing trend toward obesity in the country, too, with 51% being classified as overweight or obese.
The researchers were looking for dietary intakes of six specific nutrients that have been identified as important or critical for making healthy babies: vitamins A and D, folate, calcium, iron and omega-3 fatty acids.
The research showed pregnant women were most likely to fall short of adequate intakes from diet alone for Vitamin D and iron, with 83% to 96% being at risk among both younger and older individuals. Omega-3s were next on the descending ladder of risk of insufficient intakes, with calcium, folate/folic acid and vitamin A rounding out the list of nutrients of concern.
The researchers judged there was essentially no risk of excessive intakes of these nutrients from diet alone.
Only one supplement met researchers’ specification
The second part of the study was looking at the ingredients in dietary supplements on the market, based on a search of the Dietary Supplement Label Database maintained by the National Institutes of Health.
The researchers were looking for supplements that could enable 90% of the pregnant women to exceed the average requirement of the given nutrients, while restricting the intake of 90% of participants to below the upper limit for each nutrient within each age group. For the omega-3s, the researchers used the benchmark intake of 100 mg/day.
The researchers parsed through more than 21,000 entries of products that were labeled to contain at least one of the six nutrients of interest. Of that huge list of products, 421 were labeled as prenatal products.
The researchers found none of the prenatal products met their criteria that would have enabled 90% of the ECHO cohort to obtain enough of the six nutrients while ensuring at least 90% of them didn’t get too much any one nutrient.
Only one product in the entire NIH database met their specifications, and that was not even labeled as a prenatal. That product was branded as Shaklee Life with Iron. The researchers noted this product is both inconvenient (mandating a user take seven pills a day) and very expensive, at more than $200 a month.