Writing in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Saskia Willers (Utrecht University) and colleagues report that "daily consumption of nut products increased the risk of asthma outcomes during the first 8 years of life."

Maternal diet and lifestyle can influence the development of the airways and immune system of the child in utero, leading many researchers to speculate that the probability of developing asthma and allergy might be determined during fetal life.

Willers and colleagues investigated the influence of maternal food consumption during pregnancy of 1327 atopic and 2819 non-atopic mothers on childhood asthma outcomes from 1 to 8 years of age.

Expectant mothers were asked how often they consumed vegetables, fresh fruit, fish, egg, milk, milk products, nuts, and nut products such as peanut butter. Their reported frequency values were classified as rare, regular, or daily.

After determining childhood asthma outcomes after 8 years of follow-up, the authors found that maternal vegetable, fish, egg, milk or milk products, and nut consumption did not affect longitudinal childhood outcomes.

However, the daily consumption of nut products increased the risk for childhood wheeze (odds ratio [OR] daily vs rare consumption = 1.42), dyspnea (OR=1.58) steroid use (OR=1.62) and asthma symptoms (OR=1.47).

These results "indicate an increased risk of daily versus rare consumption of nut products during pregnancy on childhood asthma outcomes," Willers and team write.

They conclude: "More research is needed to study the effect of exposure to nut or nut products or other allergenic foods during pregnancy, not only on the development of food allergy, but also on the development of asthma and other allergic diseases."

The authors add: "The findings of this study need to be replicated by other studies before giving dietary advice to pregnant women."

source:ajrccm