Dietary habits in twin pregnancies: what is the adherence to the Mediterranean diet?

Objective. The nutritional status of pregnant women has a significant impact on the future health both of the offspring and the mother. The Mediterranean Diet fits all the recommendations for pregnant women and specifically for multiple pregnancies. The Mediterranean Diet potentially decreases the incidence of pregnancy complications like preeclampsia and gestational diabetes that are more frequent in multiple pregnancies. The aim of our study was to investigate eating habits in multiple pregnancies, in order to evaluate the adherence to the Mediterranean Diet.
Materials and Methods. Dietary information was collected from 50 multiple pregnant women who referred to the Careggi Multiple Pregnancy Outpatient Service from November 2021 to June 2022. The women were all aged 18-43 years in all three trimesters of pregnancy. Eating habits information and anthropometric data were collected. The Mediterranean Diet adherence was investigated through the Medi-Lite score.
Results. Our collected data showed that most women had a normal pre-pregnancy weight (72%), while 18% were overweight and 2% obese. The mean pre-pregnancy BMI was 22.1. The entire group consumed the three main meals during the day, however 30% of women skipped their mid-morning snack and 16% their mid-afternoon snack. A moderate adherence to Mediterranean Diet was observed (9.8 ± 1.8), however only a minority of the sample showed optimal uptake of fruit (20%), vegetables (12%), fish (6%), legumes (12%), milk and dairy products (22%).
Conclusions. Women with multiple pregnancies showed suboptimal adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. Knowing the degree of adherence to the Mediterranean Diet is important in order to customize the diet for each individual patient.