Nut Consumption During Pregnancy Linked to Childhood Asthma

Filed in archive Allergy: Research and Development , Asthma , Food Allergies , Living with Allergies on July 26, 2008

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Agnieszka Pastuszak-Maksim

Should pregnant women avoid eating nuts during pregnancy, or continue eating them? Such an old issue, and never been really clear. And yet, here's another study muddles it up for pregnant women even more: Consumption of nut products during pregnancy linked to increased asthma in children .

Expectant mothers who eat nuts or nut products like peanut butter daily during pregnancy increase their children's risk of developing asthma by more than 50 percent over women who rarely or never consume nut products during pregnancy, according to new research from the Netherlands.

Because these observations are only based on the data obtained from a survey and not on experimental results, studies like these only show that nut intake during pregnancy is associated with asthma in children, but there is no evidence that nut consumption actually causes it. The authors say it is "too early to make recommendations of avoidance", and rather than avoid nu products entirely, "it's important for pregnant women to eat healthily, and what is true for many foods is that too much is never good."