Mediterranean diet for pregnant women reduces child's risk for asthma

The latest research suggests that pregnant women who eat a Mediterranean diet may help protect their children from asthma and other allergies.

The research by scientists from the University of Crete in Greece, found that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables gave protection from such conditions to their babies.

The research team studied 468 mothers and their children from pregnancy to six-and-a-half years after the birth and found that asthma and allergies were significantly less common in children whose mothers ate lots of vegetables, fruit, nuts and fish during pregnancy.

They also found that eating high levels of red meat, such as three to four times a week, increased the risk.

At a time when more and more children in the developed world are suffering from asthma and other allergies the study is particularly significant.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), asthma is the most common chronic disease among children; the WHO says 300 million people suffer from asthma and 255,000 people died of asthma in 2005.

The same research team had already found in a previous study that children who ate a Mediterranean diet appeared to be protected from asthma and allergies but this latest research indicates that the protective effect of the Mediterranean diet may begin even earlier.

The researchers found that by the time the children were six-and-a-half years old their diet appeared to have little impact on their risk of asthma and allergy, but their mother's diet during pregnancy appeared to be much more important.

The best results in terms of protection, occurred when vegetables were eaten more than eight times a week, fish more than three times a week, and legumes more than once a week.

The researchers suggest the Mediterranean diet is well balanced and rich in foods which contained beneficial vitamins and minerals and is also high in antioxidants which help to keep tissues, including those in the lungs, healthy.

They say the fatty acids from fish also help reduce potentially damaging inflammation.

The research is published in the journal Thorax.