Oprah's Example to Moms-to-be; Consider Carb Restriction

"According to Oprah's biography, she was born to a poor single mother in rural Mississippi.  I would assume that her mother, like most poor rural people, consumed primarily a carb-based diet.  Why?  Carbs are cheap.  One of the reason poor people are fatter in general than well-off people, is that poor people eat a lot more carbs for budget reasons.  Another reason poor people are fatter is a little less known, but surely applies to Oprah.

When pregnant women load up on refined carbohydrates during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, they end up damaging the developing pancreas of the fetus.  The pancreas is pretty much developed during the first trimester, so a chronic high load of glucose in the mother's blood that crosses the placenta ends up programming the fetal pancreas in much the same way that a huge chronic glucose load over a long time in adults creates insulin resistance.  This situation has been published about extensively in the medical literature.  The phenomenon is called fetal programming.  Babies born are basically  programed to become insulin resistant and obese.  These kids tend to develop obesity and insulin resistance more easily than others and have a tougher time dealing with it.  I'm sure that Oprah falls into this category.

Just like any adults who have glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and/or diabetes, these fetally-programmed people tend to do better on low-carbohydrate diets than on low-fat/high-carb diets."

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/metabolism/oprahs-plight/