Towards Novel Nutritional Strategies in Gestational Diabetes: Eating Behaviour and Obesity in Women with Gestational Diabetes Compared with Non-Pregnant Adults

Background: Gestational diabetes is associated with increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Effective nutritional strategies are needed to reduce BMI and improve long-term maternal cardiometabolic health, but the relative contribution of maternal eating behaviour, a potential barrier to dietary change, has not been explored. We compared eating behaviour in women with gestational diabetes with that of men and non-pregnant women with comparable risk factors, and tested associations between eating behaviour traits and BMI in women with gestational diabetes. We hypothesized that eating behaviour would be unfavourable in gestational diabetes and would be associated with BMI. Methods: Participants (n = 417) including 53 men, 164 non-pregnant women and 200 women with gestational diabetes (singleton pregnancy; 29 weeks’ gestation) were recruited into three prospective studies assessing weight loss interventions, with similar entry criteria. The three-factor eating questionnaire (TFEQ-R18) assessed uncontrolled eating, emotional eating and cognitive restraint at study enrolment. Associations between BMI at study enrolment and TFEQ-R18 (% maximum score) were assessed using linear regression. Results: Women with gestational diabetes had significantly lower uncontrolled eating scores vs. men (53% vs. 65%; p < 0.001) and non-pregnant women (53% vs. 66%; p < 0.001), lower emotional eating scores vs. non-pregnant women (60% vs. 71%; p < 0.001) and higher cognitive restraint (p < 0.001 vs. men and non-pregnant women). In women with gestational diabetes, emotional eating scores were positively associated with BMI at study enrolment (beta coefficient 7.8 (95% CI 3.9 to 11.7), p < 0.001). Conclusions: Women with gestational diabetes have favourable eating behaviour compared with other population groups. Because BMI at study enrolment was associated with emotional eating, nutritional strategies which reduce emotional eating may provide new opportunities to improve long-term maternal health after gestational diabetes.