Groenten en vis tegen slechte ademhaling en atopie bij kleuters.*
Uit een Spaanse studie onder 460 kleuters van gemiddeld 6,5 jaar blijkt dat speciale groenten en vis zeer goed werken tegen een slechte ademhaling en atopie bij kleuters. Gemiddeld aten de kleuters per dag veel fruit (177 gram) en veel vis (54 gram) en minder groeten (59 gram). Het eten van meer dan 40 gram per dag van “fruitige” groenten zoals tomaten, aubergine, komkommer, sperziebonen en courgettes geeft duidelijke verbeteringen voor de ademhaling en atopie. Meer dan 60 gram vis per dag geeft duidelijk minder atopie.
‘Fruity’ vegetable intake protects against childhood wheeze
Study findings support the protective effect of eating certain vegetables and fish during childhood against wheeze and atopy.
Leda Chatzi (University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece) and colleagues studied associations between dietary factors and wheeze and atopy among 460 children living in the Spanish Mediterranean island of
Menorca.
The children, aged on average 6.5 years, underwent skin prick tests with six common aeroallergens. Parents completed a questionnaire on their child’s respiratory and allergy symptoms, and a 96-item food frequency questionnaire to chart the child’s dietary intake.
A high consumption (>40 g/day) of “fruity” vegetables, for example tomatoes, eggplants, cucumber, green beans, and zucchini, was associated with a reduced odds of current wheeze (odds ratio [OR]=0.38) and atopic wheeze (OR=0.19), the authors report.
A high intake (≥60 g/day) of fish was associated with a reduced odds for atopy only
(OR=0.43).
These associations remained significant after adjusting for energy intake and maternal diet during pregnancy, the authors note in the journal Pediatric Allergy and
Immunology.
The authors comment that fruity vegetables contain many potentially important antioxidants that cannot be easily quantified. They say that when the intake of tomatoes was studied separately, there was no association with wheeze or atopy, “probably due to a lack of variability in tomato intake in the study population.”
But a high consumption (≥35 g/day) of green beans showed a protective effect against current wheeze (OR=0.18), although the association was not statistically significant. Green beans contain high levels of vitamin C and vitamin A, as a result of their high concentration of beta carotene, Chatzi et al
note.
The researchers highlight that the study included children from the follow-up of a birth cohort, allowing the effect of early life exposures (such as maternal diet during pregnancy and breast feeding) to be accounted
for.
“This is the first time to our knowledge that a study assessed simultaneously maternal dietary habits during pregnancy and children’s dietary habits in relation to asthma and atopy outcomes in childhood,” they write.
However, they concede that the cross-sectional nature of the analysis means that causal relationships could not be properly assessed.
Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2007; 18: 480-485 (September 2007)
Reacties:
