Apples During Pregnancy May Protect Children From Asthma

Eating regular, well-balanced meals is very important when a woman is pregnant. Such a diet if rich in fruits like apple, may protect the child from many diseases, including asthma reports Sade Oguntola

Perhaps you just learned that you are pregnant? Your tummy may not even be showing that you are pregnant. However the choices you make and what you eat now and every daynow that you are pregnant or breastfeeding can affect your health and the health of your baby.

Eating regular, well-balanced meals is more important when you are pregnant than at any other time of your life. A pregnant woman’s need for most vitamins and minerals, particularly folic acid and iron, also increases. These nutrients are important for the baby’s growth and development. They give the baby strong bones and teeth, healthy skin, and a healthy body. A healthy diet is one that is based mainly on plant foods such as vegetables, fruits, bread, potatoes, cereals, and beans accompanied by relatively small amounts of proteinous foods like low fat milk, fish, lean red meats, and poultry.

Studies have examined dietary intakes of fruits, vegetables, cereals and starches, various fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, minerals (sodium, magnesium, copper, zinc, and selenium), and antioxidants for possible associations with asthma. In cross-sectional surveys, a wide range of nutrients appear to have an effect on asthma outcomes.

A pregnant woman’s nutrition during pregnancy also may have a role on asthma outcome. Pregnancy is the one times when one person’s eating habits directly affects another. A decision to incorporate vegetables, whole grains and legumes, lean protein, and other wise food choices into the eating plan before and during pregnancy can give the baby a strong start to life.

This is also substantiated by a new study that suggested that women who eat apples while pregnant may protect their child from developing asthma and related symptoms later in life. Childhood asthma has become more widespread in recent decades. As the most common chronic illness in children, childhood asthma causes more missed school and places more limits on activity than any other disease.

The compelling research from the Netherlands and Scotland looked for associations between what the women ate and the children’s risk of asthma or wheezing. During the course of study, they found that children of mothers with sufficient intake of apple had significantly reduced risk of developing asthma and childhood wheezing. However, the way apple consumption staved off asthma symptoms is still not very clear.

There speculation was that certain chemicals in apples - called flavonoids - may have a protective effect against asthma, though the way apple consumption does this is still not very clear. Tracking dietary intake in nearly 2,000 pregnant women, they found that eating four or more apples a week during pregnancy appeared to lower the risk of asthma in the women’s children, according to the study in Thorax

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