Vegetarian Diet during Pregnancy Is Not Associated with Poorer Cognitive Performance in Children at Age 6-7 Years.

Compared with omnivorous mothers, vegetarian mothers have lower intakes of some nutrients required for neurological development. However, there is a lack of information about the impact of vegetarianism during pregnancy on subsequent cognitive function in children. The aim of this study was to investigate whether vegetarianism during pregnancy is associated with altered maternal nutritional status and with cognitive function in children at six to seven years of age. Women aged 20-34 years participating in a prospective observational study who provided dietary data and blood samples in early pregnancy (11 weeks; 78 vegetarians and 2144 omnivores) or late pregnancy (34 weeks; 91 vegetarians and 2552 omnivores). Compared with omnivorous women, vegetarian women had lower blood concentrations of arachidonic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, and cobalamin in early and late pregnancy. Vegetarianism in pregnancy was linked to higher maternal educational attainment, longer breastfeeding duration, lower incidence of smoking during pregnancy and a tendency towards higher IQ in the mothers. Concentrations of some nutrients required for neurodevelopment were lower in maternal blood during gestation; however, after controlling for confounders consuming a vegetarian diet during pregnancy was not associated with poorer neurocognitive development of the children in this study.
Competing Interests: K.M.G. and G.C.B. have received reimbursement for speaking at conferences sponsored by companies selling nutritional products, and are, or have been, part of an academic consortium that received research funding from Abbott Nutrition, Nestec and Danone. P.C.C. is a consultant to Danone/Nutricia, DSM, Pronova BioPharma, Cargill and Smartfish and has received speaking honoraria from Danone, DSM, Smartfish and Abbott Nutrition. G.C.B. has been an advisor to BASF. None of the other authors had disclosures to report. None of the authors has any conflicts of interest to declare.