Pre-pregnancy fried food consumption and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: A prospective cohort study

Aims/hypothesis Fried foods are frequently consumed in Western countries. However, the health effects of frequent fried food consumption in humans are not well understood. We aimed to prospectively examine the association between pre-pregnancy fried food consumption and risk of incident gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods We included 21,079 singleton pregnancies from 15,027 women in the Nurses' Health Study II cohort. Since 1991 and every 4 years thereafter, we collected diet information, including consumption of fried foods at home and away from home, using a validated food frequency questionnaire. We used generalised estimating equations with log-binomial models to estimate the RRs and 95% CIs. Results We documented 847 incident GDM pregnancies during 10 years of follow-up. After adjustment for age, parity, dietary and non-dietary factors, the RRs (95% CIs) of GD among women who consumed total fried foods 1-3, 4-6 and ≥7 times/week, compared with those who consumed it less than once/week, were 1.13 (0.97, 1.32), 1.31 (1.08, 1.59) and 2.18 (1.53, 3.09), respectively (p for trend