ReviewThe Proceedings of the Nutrition Society2019
Effects of consuming sugars and alternative sweeteners during pregnancy on maternal and child health: evidence for a secondhand sugar effect.
Review in The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Consumption of Non-Nutritive Sweetener during Pregnancy and Weight Gain in Offspring: Evidence from Human Studies.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of prenatal artificial sweeteners consumption on birth outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Public health nutrition · 2021Pooled it
- Sugar restriction during the first 1000 days after conception and its association with decreased risk of anxiety and depression.General psychiatry · 2026Article
- Carbohydrate composition of infant formula and glycemic regulation in early infancy using continuous glucose monitoring: cross-sectional evidence of altered glucose patterns with corn syrup solid-based formulas.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Observational
- Synthetic Sweeteners and Human Health: An Overview of Health Risks, Vulnerable Populations, and Effects on Key Biological Systems.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Review
- Maternal Sucrose Intake during Pregnancy Alone Disrupts Testosterone and Allopregnanolone Levels in the Fetal Brain of Rats.The Journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- Sucralose Exposure During Pregnancy Elevates Gestational Diabetes Risk via Gut Microbiota-Metabolic Axis in Mice.Journal of diabetes research · 2026Article
- Maternal monosaccharide diets modulate melanocortin-4 receptor signaling and metabolic state in rat offspring.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2025Article
- Prenatal sugar exposure shapes late-life human capital and health.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Sweetened beverage intake across moderate intake range is not associated with pregnancy-related weight change or biomarkers of glycemic control.Nutrition research (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Observational
- Ethnicity modifies the relationship between added sugars and fructose exposure in the first 1000 days and offspring body composition at 24 months.Nutrition research (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Article
- Maternal dietary patterns and offspring behavioral problems.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Association of Prenatal Healthy and Unhealthy Plant-Based Diets with Behavioral Outcomes in Preschool Children.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Gestational high-sucrose diet mediated vascular hyper-contractility in mesenteric arteries from offspring.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A narrative review on the relationship between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and post-partum non-communicable diseases among women.Frontiers in public health · 2025Review
- Food sweeteners: Angels or clowns for human health?Current research in food science · 2025Review
- Correlation Analyses of the Consumption of Artificial Sweeteners During Pregnancy and the Incidence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy · 2025Article
- Exploring the impact of artificial sweeteners on diabetes management and glycemic control.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- An Online Multimodal Food Data Exploration Platform for Specific Population Health: Development Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Consumption of sugar and alternative low- or no-energy sweeteners has increased in recent decades. However, it is still uncertain how consumption of sugar and alternative sweeteners during pregnancy affects pregnancy outcomes and long-term offspring health. This review aims to collate the available evidence surrounding the consequences of sugar and alternative sweetener consumption during pregnancy, a so-called secondhand sugar effect. We found evidence that sugar consumption during pregnancy may contribute to increased gestational weight gain and the development of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes, preeclampsia and preterm birth. Further, we found a growing body of the animal and human evidence that maternal sugar intake during pregnancy may impact neonatal and childhood metabolism, taste perception and obesity risk. Emerging evidence also suggests that both maternal and paternal preconception sugar intakes are linked to offspring metabolic outcomes, perhaps via epigenetic alterations to the germline. While there have been fewer studies of the impacts of alternative sweetener consumption before and during pregnancy, there is some evidence to suggest effects on infant outcomes including preterm birth risk, increased infant body composition and offspring preference for sweet foods, although mechanisms are unclear. We conclude that preconception and gestational sugar and alternative sweetener consumption may negatively impact pregnancy outcomes and offspring health and that there is a need for further observational, mechanistic and intervention research in this area.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.