Pregnant women are advised to drink no more than two cups of coffee a day to cut the risk of giving birth to underweight babies.
After a recent report last week about women being able to afford a little more alcohol while pregnant, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are now revising their advice about caffeine consumption. This follows recent findings that suggest a link between drinking coffee during pregnancy and giving birth to small/underweight babies. The health implications of undeweight babies include a higher risk of premature death as well as developmental problems in the future.
Of course it is not just coffee that needs to be avoided - tea, cola, chocolate, cocoa, enegry drinks and various medicines also contain caffeine and should be enjoyed moderately.
Previously, scientists have suggested a strong link between caffeine consumption and a high risk of miscarriage. Underweight babies also pose a danger of unexpected miscarriage.
The new guidleines from the FSA suggest pregnant women or women trying for a baby should not consume more than 200mg of caffeine in one day - that is comparable to two average-sized cups of instant coffee.
The suggested limit prior to this change was a maximum of 300mg a day - equivalent to three cups of instand coffee.
In regards to real coffee - from a coffee maker or those served in cafés, a regular mug of coffee contains around 140mg of caffeine.
In comparison, the FSA advises a cup of tea has 70mg of caffeine, a 330ml can of cola 40mg, and a 50g bar of plain chocolate 50mg.
The change has occurred after the FSA received advice from their independent Committee on Toxicity, which have deemed small amounts of caffeine as being enough to result in difficulties in an unborn child.
The FSA’s cheif scientist, Andrew Wadge, reports, “This new advice doesn’t mean that pregnant women have to cut out caffeine completely, simply that they should be careful and make sure they don’t have too much.
We would emphasise that the risks are likely to be very small and believe our new advice, which is based on new research and has been considered by leading independent scientists, is sensible and proportionate.”
The new research was carried out betwen September 2003 and June 2006 by scientists at Leeds and Leicester universities. The study looked at 2,645 low risk preganant women averaging no older than 30, to see how
their caffeine consumption affected their unborn child. The results revealed that women drinking more than 200mg of caffeine a day had a higher chance of giving birth to an underweight baby.
Currently, women tend to reduce their caffeine intake when falling pregnant anyway, usually not consuming more than 200mg a day. The study also showed the majority of women in the study were tea drinkers.The new guidelines are therefore unlikely to affect a large amount of women.
The British Coffee Association have taken on board the new research and will address the situation accordingly, by rehashing their own advice to healthcare professionals and coffee drinkers.
A spokesman from the association, Dr Euan Paul, said the research was “a robust review and analysis of all the current evidence pertaining to the consumption of caffeine during pregnancy”.
He also talked about the fact that women can consume decaffeinated drinks during pregnancy without cause for concern.
In reposnse the the revised guidelines, health executives have concerns that women will give up drinking caffienated drinks but will replace them with alcholic or very sweet soft drinks.
