Women have a lower risk of having children with birth defects if they eat healthier in the year before becoming pregnant, according to a study published on Monday by researchers at the School of Medicine in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The researchers used data from 10,000 women with due dates from October 1997 through 2005 and looked at the overall quality of their diets in the year leading up to their pregnancy. They compared the women’s food intakes to either a Mediterranean-style diet or a diet that closely adhered to U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Both of these diets are high in fruits, vegetables, grain, calcium, iron and folate<\p>–<\p>and low in sugars and fats.

The women who ranked highest in following these dietary patterns were less likely to give birth to children with neural tube defects or orofacial clefts. These findings persisted even when the researchers adjusted for potential confounding effects, such as the mother taking additional vitamin or mineral supplements.

This study differs from previous research in pre-natal health because “previous nutrition research on birth defects has tended to focus on one nutrient at a time,” the authors wrote in the paper. The reality, however, is that nutrition is much more complex, they said.

– Kurt Chirbas