Nuts During Pregnancy Could Increase Infant Asthma Risk
Pregnant mothers who consume nuts or nut products may be increasing their children’s risk of developing asthma by over 50 percent more than expecting mothers who rarely eat nut products, a new study says.
The results of the study conducted by Dutch researchers are published in the second issue for July of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
"We were pretty surprised to see the adverse associations between daily versus rare nut product consumption during pregnancy and symptoms of asthma in children, because we haven’t seen this in similar previous studies," said the study’s lead author, Saskia M. Willers, M.Sc.
Willers added that it was "too early to make recommendations of avoidance," but "it’s important for pregnant women to eat healthily, and what is true for many foods is that too much is never good."
The study used diet questionnaires among almost 4,000 women to find their level of nut consumption. Then, their children were monitored for eight years.
In comparing women who ate nuts daily during pregnancy to those who ate them "rarely" consistently pointed to an increased risk, with between a 40 percent and 60 percent rise in the chances of wheeze, asthma symptoms in general, and use of steroids.
Researchers noted that the increased risk may be attributed to potent allergens found in some nuts. This could prime the fetus to be prone to develop allergies, but the factors are still unclear, they said.
Asthma runs in families, suggesting a strong hereditary link, but the environment still plays a significant role.
"We were the first to find these strong effects on asthma symptoms," said Willers, adding that other studies will need to reach the same conclusion before making any diet restrictions.
"If you eat moderately, it is probably not a problem," she said. "It is only if you eat nuts or nut products on a daily basis," she said.
The researchers also found a small benefit from eating fruit daily, and reported that the link between asthma and nuts remained after factoring for the child’s diet.
"Future studies need to unravel if effects of maternal diet during pregnancy can be attributed to specific nutrients, specific foods or that consumption of certain foods is part of a dietary pattern indicative of a healthier lifestyle in general," Willers concluded.
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