Prepregnancy Consumption of Fruits and Fruit Juices and the Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE: Examine the association of prepregnancy habitual consumption of fruits and fruit juices and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A prospective study among women with at least one singleton pregnancy in the Nurses’ Health Study II from 1991 to 2001. RESULTS: Among 13,475 women, 860 reported a first diagnosis of GDM. The adjusted relative risks (RRs) for GDM from the lowest to highest quintile of whole fruit consumption were 1.00 (referent), 0.80 (95% CI 0.65–0.98), 0.90 (0.73–1.10), 0.80 (0.64–1.00), and 0.93 (0.76–1.16), respectively. The corresponding RRs for fruit juice were 1.00, 0.82 (0.66–1.01), 0.78 (0.63–0.96), 0.84 (0.68–1.04), and 1.00 (0.81–1.23). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that prepregnancy higher consumption of whole fruits is not associated with an increased GDM risk. The association between fruit juices and GDM risk appears to be nonlinear.