Apples during pregnancy prevent asthma

Eating apples and fish during pregnancy helps in protecting the child from developing asthma and allergic disease.   Researchers from the Utrecht University, The Netherlands and University of Aberdeen, Scotland followed the diets of nearly 2,000 pregnant women and checked the lung health of 1,253 of their children at 5 years of age. They found that 162 children (13 percent) had a bout of wheezing in the past year and 145 (12 percent) had doctor-confirmed asthma.   Among the wide variety of foods consumed and recorded by the pregnant women, only apple consumption showed a consistent protective association with the occurrence of childhood wheeze and asthma. Children of mothers who ate more than 4 apples per week were 37 percent less likely to have a history of wheezing and 53 percent less likely to have doctor-confirmed asthma, as compared to mothers who ate one or no apples per week during pregnancy.   The specific association found with apples, and not with the total amount of fruits eaten or with citrus, fruit juice or vegetable consumption, hints at an apple-specific effect, possible because of its phytochemical content, such as flavonoids, which have been shown to have beneficial effects on adult lung function.   It was also found that consumption of fish during pregnancy might have a protective effect against the development of allergic disease like eczema in offspring. Children of mothers who ate fish once per week or more while pregnant had a 43 percent lower risk of eczema compared to children whose mothers avoided fish altogether.