Another explanation for the observed correlation: sugary foods do not
contain more useful nutrients or vitamins, minerals etc. Mothers who
eat too much of them displace more nutritious foods and therefore the
fetus does not get enough of the good stuff.

Or, maybe, the junk food eaters are less health conscious and they did
not take their vitamin supplements.

A more proper study would be a randomized controlled trial. Tell half
the pregnant women to stay off sugary carbs, and tell another half to
eat whatever they want, and then see the result.

I am sugarfree myself, so I am not advocating sugar. I am just
suggesting to look for other explanations when looking at a mere
correlation.

i
"correlation is not causation"

It sounds like these people may not have been eating a balanced diet.
Where they getting plenty of folic acid?  Did they take a multivitin?
The article doesn't really provide enough information to know what is
going on here.

Follow-up:

http://www.connected.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2003/11
/26/ecmbif23.xml&sSheet=/connected/2003/11/26/ixconn.html

Spina bifida in babies is linked with cornflakes and white bread

By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent (Filed: 23/11/2003)

Pregnant women who eat sugary or highly processed food such as white
bread and cornflakes face double the risk of having malformed babies,
according to new research.

Scientists made the discovery after comparing the diets of mothers
whose babies had so-called neural tube defects such as spina bifida
with those of mothers with normal babies.

The study, involving almost 1,000 women, found that the risk of such
birth defects was substantially greater among those who consumed
higher levels of sugar and the highly refined carbohydrates found in
potatoes, white bread and rice and many popular breakfast cereals.

University researchers at the California birth defects monitoring
programme in Berkeley said such foods may double the risk of neural
tube defects in unborn babies, increasing to a fourfold risk among
mothers with obesity.

The new findings, reported in the latest issue of the American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition, add to the growing concern over food products
with a high glycemic index (GI). By producing a surge in blood sugar,
the foods trigger the release of a large amount of insulin, high
levels of which have already been implicated in birth defects.

Dr Ross Welch, a specialist in foetal medicine at Arrowe Park
Hospital, Wirral, Cheshire, said: "Assuming these results have a sound
statistical basis, then this is important. The question we have to ask
is what do we do about it?" Most mothers did not realise the crucial
importance of diet in the first days of pregnancy, Dr Welch said.

"High blood sugar levels have already been linked with foetal
abnormality in diabetes, and this new research seems to be in line
with that." He added: "Preconceptual folic acid is, however, still
likely to be more important."

The findings come amid mounting evidence that high GI foods may pose a
significant threat to health. Earlier this year, high GI diets were
linked to 50 to 80 per cent increases in risk of oral and ovarian
cancer by researchers at the Centre for Cancer Research in Aviano,
Italy.

Most concern focuses on the role of such food in obesity. Research
published earlier this month by scientists at Oxford Brookes
University found that children given a high GI breakfast of
cornflakes, Coco-Pops or white bread consumed many more calories at
lunchtime than those given a low-GI alternative, such as bran flakes
or porridge.

Professor Jeya Henry, who led the research, said that the results
supported evidence that high-GI foods boost appetite while cutting
satiety - the "full" feeling that normally follows a meal. Both are
thought to play important roles in developing obesity.

"It is time we got away from the idea that it is all just a matter of
a lack of self-control and exercise," said Prof Henry. "Every measure
to reduce food intake must be explored. If we are serious about this
issue, we need the Government and the food industry to get together to
fund more research as a matter of urgency."

Within the scientific world there is mounting anger over what is being
seen as foot-dragging by the food industry over its role in the
increase in obesity, which according to official figures is
responsible for 30,000 premature deaths a year in Britain.

Neville Rigby, the policy director of the London-based international
obesity task force, said: "The food industry is the solution - they
have to be, but they are not doing enough." However,the food industry
insists that the issues involved are complex. A spokesman for
Kellogg's, which makes many high GI cereals, said: "The science is
relatively new and in some areas controversial. For instance, simply
adding milk to cornflakes lowers their GI, while adding a banana
lowers it even further.

"There is very clear evidence that foods such as Kellogg's Corn
Flakes, which are high in carbohydrate and low in fat, play an
important role in helping people reduce fat intakes, maintain weight
levels and possibly help their bodies to better control blood sugar
levels."

Parents with children suffering from spina bifida welcomed the
research. Su Scurr, from Tiverton, Devon, whose three-year-old
daughter Briony has spina bifida, said last night: "If these foods are
a significant factor then women need to be made aware of this
research. I wouldn't wish what happened to me on anyone. It was awful.
We found out that I was carrying a child with spina bifida in a scan
at about 22 weeks.

"I took folic acid in the two months before I got pregnant and I made
sure I ate lots of fruit and salads but in the past I had eaten quite
a bit of sugar. Who doesn't eat cereals? We need more research into
spina bifida."

Mrs Scurr, a full-time mother, who lives with her husband Peter, a
chiropodist, Briony and two other - healthy - children, said abortion
was not an option. "I have no regrets. Briony is lovely."

Tanni Grey-Thompson OBE, who was born with spina bifida and has become
Britain's best-known paralympic athlete, said last night: "These
findings are interesting but you have to put them into context. Living
in areas with heavy industry is also a factor, for example. It is
really useful to encourage women to eat a better diet but there are
also financial reasons why women eat what they do."

Ms Grey-Thompson, who has won 14 paralympic medals and eight medal
placings in the London Marathon, added: "There are a huge number of
scary things that women are told when they become pregnant that can
put a lot of guilt on mothers. Sometimes disability is no one's fault
and there is nothing you can do about it."