Evidence and recommendations on the vegetarian diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding. A bibliographic review

Background: In recent wars there has been an exponential growth of those people who follow a vegetarian diet. Due to this increase, a new food tend emerges during two vital stages, pregnancy and lactation, which can cause nutritional deficiencies and adverse effects in the short and long term. For this reason, a compilation of studies based on the effects of said diet in these periods is carried out. The objective of this review was to analyze the compatibility of the vegetarian diet and the correct development of pregnancy and lactation. Methodology: A search of the existing bibliography is carried out, through the Biblioteca Virtual de la Salud (BVS) and EBSCOhost metasearch engines, as well as in the PubMed, Cochrane and CINAHL databases, using the DeCS and MeSH descriptors. Articles whose publication is within the last 10 wars, which were written in Spanish, English and French, have been selected. Results: After screening and critical reading of the collected studies, a total of 22 articles were selected (3 clinical trials, 13 cross-sectional studies and 6 longitudinal studies). Conclusions: Vegetarian diets during pregnancy, lactation and weaning are alternative methods that are being applied more and more frequently and that are suitable for these stages if their planning is nutritionally adequate. It is observed that the diversity of maternal nutrition is an added concern among pregnant and lactating mothers, a fact that raises the need to improve educational programs to guarantee correct advice and detect possible nutritional imbalances in both periods.