Eating one snack during pregnancy linked with baby’s learning ability

Eager to produce an heir who's always top of the class? Apparently the key to birthing a baby boffin lies in your fruit bowl.  Scientists have discovered that toddlers whose mums snacked on fruit while they were pregnant scored higher in cognitive tests than other children. Interestingly, the amount of fruit consumed didn't appear to make a significant difference, so whether mum added a banana to her brekkie or snacked on berries, the benefits to her unborn baby were the same. The Canadian study of more than 800 children, published in the online journal EBioMedicine, also showed that the amount of fruit consumed by the 12-month-old children themselves made no difference to their test scores.

"We found that one of the biggest predictors of cognitive development was how much fruit moms consumed during pregnancy," said study author Piush Mandhane of the University of Alberta in Canada. "The more fruit moms had, the higher their child's cognitive development. "We know that the longer a child is in the womb, the further they develop - and having one more serving of fruit per day in a mother's diet provides her baby with the same benefit as being born a whole week later."

Interestingly, baby fruit flies (used in testing because they have strikingly similar versions of human genes) also had improved learning and memory if their parents had more fruit juice in their diet. Would these findings encourage you to reach for an apple? Let us know on Twitter @HerFamilydotie.