The Dutch government studied the diets of 4,000 expectant mothers from the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy through a dietary questionnaire that asked how often they consumed vegetables, fresh fruit, fish, eggs, milk, milk products, nuts and nut products during the last month. Their children's diets were also
assessed at two years of age, and their asthma and allergy symptoms were assessed yearly until eight years of age.
By the end of the eight years, the researchers had complete data for 2,832 children and their mothers.
The only consistent association between the foods the mothers had eaten during pregnancy and childhood asthma symptoms up till the age of eight was with nut products, presumed to be largely peanut butter. But nut consumption appeared to increase the risk of wheeze, dyspnea, doctor-diagnosed asthma and asthma-associated steroid use by more than 50%.
The study appeared in the second issue for July of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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More research on the possible causes of asthma

First Published in September 2008

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