We're told so many things about what we should and shouldn't eat during pregnancy and it seems that the list of things we can't gets longer every day.
However, a study has found that there is one tasty snack that expectant mums should be consuming.
The study was conducted by Spanish researchers and published in the European Journal of Epidemiology.
It was found that eating nuts during pregnancy might lead to improved cognitive ability in kids.
So how did work?
Mums completed food questionnaires during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy, and then researchers gave tests of motor and intellectual ability when the children were 1 and a half, 5 and 8 years old.
It found that the kids of women in the highest one-third for nut consumption - an average of 74 grams, or 2.6 ounces, of nuts a week - scored higher overall on tests of sustained attention, working memory and I.Q. than those of the mums who ate less.
Features that were controlled where maternal age, socioeconomic status, smoking, and alcohol consumption and many other characteristics of the mums and babies.
Eating nuts during pregnancy is approved by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists for their protein content but makes no claims about their effect on neurodevelopment.
Senior author of the study Jordi Julvez said, ''This is the first time we have seen this effect, and it is not enough information to change guidelines.''
He continued, ''We need to replicate these results in other populations. Still, I would recommend that women eat nuts at least three times a week, especially almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts.”
Any excuse for us to stock up on some nuts is good with us.
