How the Mediterranean diet may reduce children’s risk for asthma

Source: Time Magazine, Thorax

New research explores the relationship between children’s diet and their risk for asthma and wheezing.

The analysis suggests that children who consume a Mediterranean diet rich in fish, fruit and vegetables experience less wheezing and have lower risk for asthma. Conversely, children who ate more than three hamburgers each week may develop a higher risk for these conditions. (The authors note, however, that the link between the hamburger consumption and asthma was likely related to some larger lifestyle factor related to social context and environmental factors and merits further research.)

The study, which included 20,000 children from 20 countries, found that these results held in both poor and wealthy nations.

The authors conclude that just as previous research suggests that a Mediterranean diet is recommended for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer, it may also be beneficial in reducing wheezing and asthma in children living in a variety of contexts around the globe.