A new study at the University of Newcastle is aiming to prove simply knowing the right sized servings of food can hugely impact your health, particularly if you're pregnant.
The study is helping women understand, and lift the confusion, on how big a serving size of carbohydrates is because having too much can be bad for both mother and baby's health. When too much carbohydrate is converted to blood sugar, high levels can adversely affect their health.
PhD candidate and dietician Hannah Brown says knowing about portion size plays a vital role in protecting the health of both mother and baby.
"We're focusing on carbohydrate knowledge, food label use and food intake to develop new ways to support women and help improve nutrition in pregnancy," said Hannah.
The study will test an app which visually shows the right portion size of food you should be eating, because despite popular belief, you can't use the excuse of eating for two while you're pregnant!
"The app uses augmented reality and what it does is it overlays one standard serve of a carbohydrate food onto a plate so the participate can actually see what one standard serve looks like and then they can put this into the context of their overall diets for the day," said Hannah.
Women who participate in the study can either come to the labs at the University to get access the app to take home on their phones, or alternatively there's an online survey women can complete at home.
The study is open to women over 18 years of age and from 12 to 22 weeks' gestation, with no previous diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes. If you'd like to participate contact Hannah on 4985 4255 or hannah.m.brown@uon.edu.au . The survey is available at http://tinyurl.com/uonpregnancy
 |
| Image HMRI Twitter |
