Dietary practices and pregnancy discomforts among urban blacks.

In this prospective study, we investigated the relationship between dietary practices and pregnancy discomforts among 50 urban black American women during their first and third trimesters of pregnancy. Subjects were interviewed during their regular prenatal clinic visits for information about their previous 24-hour dietary intake, the presence and severity of pregnancy discomforts occurring in the previous month, and pertinent demographic data. Findings indicated that high intake of meat products but low or no intake of vegetables was correlated with nausea, little or no intake of milk products was correlated with heartburn, and low or no intake of citrus fruit but intake of vitamin and iron supplements was correlated with heartburn, constipation, and sleeping difficulty. Replication of the study with a larger sample is warranted so as to provide further validity to the findings.