Women who eat nuts every day during pregnancy may increase their child's risk of developing
asthma by 50%, claim a new Dutch study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Scientists asked more than 4,000 expectant mothers about their daily diets during the last month of their pregnancy, and then monitored the health of their children.
The results suggest that potent
allergens found in some nuts might prime the foetus to be allergy-prone: at the age of eight, children whose mothers consumed nuts - or products such as peanut butter - daily during pregnancy had a 47% increased risk of asthma, a 42% rise in wheezing and were 58% more likely to experience shortness of breath.
The factors that cause some children to develop asthma while others are still unclear.
Source: The
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine