New Research Finally Proves That Coffee is Safe During Pregnancy
upstart writes:
Genetic analysis of coffee drinking behavior by Drs. Gunn-Helen Moen, Daniel Hwang, and Caroline Brito Nunes from the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience revealed that limited coffee consumption during pregnancy did not increase the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature birth.
"Current World Health Organisation guidelines say pregnant women should drink less than 300mg of caffeine or two to three cups per day," Dr. Moen said.
"But that's based on observational studies where it's difficult to separate coffee drinking from other risk factors like smoking, alcohol, or poor diet. We wanted to find out if coffee alone really does increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, and the research shows this isn't the case."
Dr. Hwang said coffee-drinking behavior is partly due to genetics, with a specific set of genetic variants affecting how much coffee we drink.
"We showed that these genetic variants not only affect coffee consumption in the general population but also in pregnant women," he said.
[...] The researchers emphasize the study only looked at certain adverse pregnancy outcomes, and it is possible caffeine consumption could affect other important aspects of fetal development.
"For that reason, we don't recommend a high intake during pregnancy, but a low or moderate consumption of coffee," Dr. Moen said.
Journal Reference:
Brito Nunes, Caroline, Huang, Peiyuan, Wang, Geng, et al. Mendelian randomization study of maternal coffee consumption and its influence on birthweight, stillbirth, miscarriage, gestational age and pre-term birth [open], International Journal of Epidemiology, 2022. (DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyac121)
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