3.1.1 Food consumption, body weight and fructose uptake
During the treatment period, the amounts of liquids, animal feed and daily calories ingested by the mothers were measured, in addition to the monitoring of body weight.
Table 1 shows the average of these parameters by group during the three periods.
In the pre-pregnancy period, an increase in liquid consumption was observed in the water + VPE group and in the FRU group in relation to the water group (p<0.05). Concerning food consumption, only the water + VPE group demonstrated an increase in relation to the water group (p<0.05). However, daily caloric consumption was increased in the FRU group compared to the water group (Table 1 and Figure 2). Regarding body weight, no statistically significant difference was observed among the groups (Table 1).
During pregnancy, liquid consumption increased in the FRU group compared to the water group, and the groups FRU + VPE/Water + VPE and FRU+VPE/Water consumed less water compared to the FRU group (p<0.05). Food consumption was only decreased in the FRU + VPE/Water group in comparison to the FRU + VPE/Water + VPE group (p<0.05). Regarding caloric consumption, an increase was observed in the FRU group compared to the water group (p<0.05) (Table 1 and Figure 2). Regarding body weight, there was no statistically significant difference among the groups (Table 1).
In the post-pregnancy period, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in the consumption of liquids, feed and calories. Apart from the caloric consumption of the FRU group, which was increased compared to the water group (p<0.05) (Table 1 and Figure 2). In terms of body weight, it was observed that the groups FRU + VPE/Water + VPE and FRU+VPE/Water had a decreased weight compared to the FRU group (p<0.05) (Table 1).
The average consumption of daily calories consumed via the liquids and feed in the pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and post-pregnancy period, is presented in figure 2.
In addition to the consumed liquid and food containing fructose (Table 1), the concentration of fructose in the serum of the mothers was quantified in the pre-pregnancy and pregnancy period through HPLC. In the pre-pregnancy period, it was observed that the FRU group had higher serum fructose concentrations compared to the water group (p<0.05) and the FRU+VPE group showed decreased levels compared to the FRU group (p<0.05) (figure 3). The same happened in the pregnancy period, where the FRU group showed increased the serum concentrations of fructose in comparison to the water group, while the interventions FRU+VPE and FRU+VPE/Water + VPE reduced this concentration compared to the FRU group (p<0, 05) (figure 3). These evaluations were not performed in the post-pregnancy period due to sampling problems.