Maternal Consumption Of Even Plant-Based Foods Can Harm Developing Child, Study Warns

Exposure to toxic chemicals is believed to cause permanent and irreversible organ and brain damage to the developing fetuses. But ingesting plant products might also cause harm to pregnant women and their effects might be underestimated, warns new research.

Plant-based products eaten by women during pregnancy, as a part of their diet, get digested by the intestinal microbiota into chemical substances. Some of these chemicals can cross the placental barrier and attack the developing fetus, even if they are of "natural origin," claims the study.

The researchers at the University of Bern and Inselspital, University Hospital Bern investigated the interaction of benign intestinal microbes with the host organism.

All mammals including human beings are colonized by billions of microbes that live inside the intestines. They can also be found in the respiratory tract, skin, and the urogenital tract.

“Starting from in utero development, when maternal microbial molecules can penetrate the placental barrier, we follow the different phases of adaptation through the life events of birth, lactation, and weaning, as the young mammal adapts to the microbes that colonize its body surfaces,” said the researchers in their paper published in Science.

Although the positive influence of the intestinal flora on our immune system has been noted for a long time, this research pointed out that the effects of plant-based substances ingested by pregnant women via diet have been misjudged and that it could pose a potential risk to the developing child.

It has always been assumed that the developing fetus grows in an entirely sterile environment inside the uterus where there are no colonizing microbes and that the microbiota forms only after birth. But here’s what the researchers found:

• The placenta offers only partial protection
• The transfer of microbial substances can cause maturation of the offspring's innate immune system during pregnancy itself
• Even plant substances need to be consumed with caution. Metabolic products from diet not only reach the mother but also into the developing fetus after metabolism throughout the intestinal flora
• Herbal products, even superfoods that are usually recommended for pregnant women such as chia seeds and goji berries should be handled with caution

“Although plant products are 'natural' substances, they are always so-called xenobiotic substances that are foreign to the body and should be handled very carefully. Especially when pregnant women take plant-based products in large quantities," Andrew Macpherson, one of the lead researchers told MedicalXpress.