It turns out that healthy eating can start paying dividends for children even before conception. A study led by doctors at Stanford University School of Medicine, along with others, found that women who eat a low fat, fiber-rich diet in the year before becoming pregnant had a significantly lower risk of certain birth defects.

The study showed that women who ate healthy diets, both during pregnancy and in the year before becoming pregnant, gave birth to fewer infants with two of the most common birth defects – neural tube defects (defects of the brain and spinal cord)… Read the rest