Banaan en appelsap tegen piepende ademhaling bij astma.*
Uit
een Engelse studie onder ruim 2.600 kinderen van 5-10 jaar blijkt dat vooral
appelsap en ook bananen goed zijn tegen een piepende ademhaling (wheezing) bij
astmapatiënten. Een piepende
ademhaling is het meest bekende kenmerk van astma en door het iedere dag drinken
van 1 glas appelsap of het eten van 1 banaan kan de ernst en de frequentie van
wheezing duidelijk worden gereduceerd. Appels zelf en ook ander fruit of
fruitsappen leken geen enkel effect te hebben op de kenmerken van astma. Niet is
onderzocht waarom alleen appelsap en een banaan dit effect bereiken dat zal een
nieuwe studie moeten gebeuren.
Apple
Juice Could Protect Children Against Asthma
There
has recently been a great deal of interest in the possibility that a diet rich
in fruit and vegetables might protect against asthma. More specifically, a study
of adult asthma performed in Greenwich (UK) suggested that apples might be
particularly effective.
Peter Burney (National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London,
London, UK) and his colleagues therefore asked the parents of primary school
children about how much fruit and fruit juice their children were consuming. The
authors then compared the answers for the children who did and did not have
asthma symptoms.
In this study, apples do not seem to be particularly protective but apple juice
made from concentrate does. Although this is a surprise, the more apple juice
the children are taking, the more they seem to be protected. This means that it
is unlikely that this relationship is coincidental.
Eating other fruits, with the exception of bananas, and drinking orange juice do
not seem to be protective, and this has led Peter Burney to rethink what
mechanisms may be at work. The protective effects of bananas are less certain
from this study but may be worth studying further.
Title of the original article in The European Respiratory Journal: Childhood asthma and fruit consumption.
The European Respiratory Journal is the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (more than 8,000 specialists in lung diseases and respiratory medicine in Europe, the United States and Australia). (Juni 2007) (Opm. Appels en ook ander fruit zijn wel goed in het voorkomen van astma)