Proper diet for pregnant women can reduce birth defects?

Updated Trends: A recent study has said that a healthy diet of the pregnant women would help in reducing birth defects like orofacial cleft birth defects. It is essential that the pregnant women must follow a healthy diet, apart from the folic acid supplements.

The diet must include grains, fruits, vegetables, calcium, iron, fat as well as appropriate sugar intake. The intake of such basic things in the diet is essential and if the balance is not maintained then there are chances of birth defects despite taking all the supplements.

If proper diet is maintained then it lowers the risk of anencephaly by 51%, cleft lip by 31% and odds of palate by 26 %. Such a dietary habit is much better than all the supplements that are normally taken during pregnancy.

Some of the experts from the Stanford University who had conducted the study had said that it is important to think about nutrition in all of its complexities. But the experts had also clarified that this does not mean that the a proper diet must be replaced by folic acid supplements. Folic acid can clearly prevent the neural tube defects in the baby, but still the birth defects have not stopped due to which they need to concentrate in on their diet.