Higher adherence to Mediterranean diet prior to pregnancy is associated with decreased risk for deviation from the maternal recommended gestational weight gain.

The present retrospective study was conducted on 1482 women in order to evaluate whether their pre-pregnancy adherence to the Mediterranean diet may affect maternal gestational weight gain (GWG). For this purpose, the study population was classified according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations concerning GWG. Pre-pregnancy adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed with 11 food patterns groups based on their contribution in the Mediterranean diet pyramid. Women with high adherence to the Mediterranean diet were more frequently characterised by GWG inside the IOM recommendations. In multivariate analysis, women with low Mediterranean diet adherence were almost twice at risk in presenting deflection from recommended GWG regardless of various confounding factors. These findings suggested that high pre-pregnancy adherence to the Mediterranean diet may be associated with reduced risk for GWG outside the IOM recommendations. However, larger prospective studies are strongly recommended in order for more precise conclusions to be drawn.