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Healthy diet of expectant mother improves brain development and IQ in children
Last reviewed: 03.07.2025
A recent study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlights the importance of good nutrition during pregnancy for the development of the baby’s brain and cognitive abilities. The results show that a healthy maternal diet can help increase brain size and improve cognitive function in the baby, which can last into adolescence.
Key aspects of the study
- Rapid Brain Growth: Brain development requires significant amounts of energy, especially in the first 1,000 days of life. Nutritional deficiencies during this period can harm neurodevelopment and affect brain structure.
- Nutrient synergy: Instead of studying individual components of a diet, researchers focused on the overall diet. They found that the interaction of different nutrients can have a more pronounced effect than each component alone.
- Importance of the first trimester: A mother's diet in early pregnancy has been shown to be particularly important for the development of the baby's brain and cognitive abilities.
Research Methodology
The study was conducted using data from a large cohort sample in the Netherlands, including more than 6,400 pregnant women. MRI brain scans were performed on 2,223 children aged 10 years and 1,582 children aged 14 years. Diet quality was assessed using a scale (0–15 points), with higher scores indicating compliance with national recommendations for healthy eating.
The children had their grey and white matter volumes measured, and cortical features such as the thickness and surface area of the cerebral cortex were analysed. Cognitive abilities were assessed using tests of information processing speed, memory, logic and vocabulary.
Key Results
Brain volume and cognitive function:
- Children of mothers with better diets had larger volumes of gray and white matter, particularly in the frontal and occipital lobes of the brain.
- Improved IQ scores, particularly in the areas of matrix reasoning and vocabulary, were associated with changes in brain structure.
Long term effects:
- The strongest associations between diet quality and brain development were observed at age 10, but persisted at age 14, although at a lower strength.
Mechanisms of influence:
- Improved brain structure may be due to reduced inflammation or epigenetic changes.
- Nutrients such as folate, zinc, iron and protein play an important role in supporting neurodevelopment.
Conclusions and Prospects
The study is the first to show long-term links between the quality of a mother's diet during pregnancy and her child's brain structure into adolescence. The findings highlight the importance of dietary modifications in pregnant women to improve their children's cognitive function.
Future research: Further studies are needed to confirm these findings in different populations. It is also important to examine how prenatal diet quality may influence mental health and cognitive performance in late adolescence and adulthood.