By IANS
London : Researchers in Spain have found that adequate daily intake of fish and vegetables that are like fruits could help cut asthma and allergies in children.
Asthma is a chronic illness involving the respiratory system in which the airway occasionally constricts and becomes inflamed. An allergy is a reaction by our immune system in response to bodily contact with certain foreign substances.
The seven-year study looked at 232 boys and 228 girls from the womb to age six-and-a-half. It found that those who daily consumed more than 60 grams of fish and 40 grams of “fruity” vegetables, such as tomatoes and aubergine had reduced asthma and allergies, reported the online edition of the Daily Mail.
The study that was published in the latest edition of the journal Paediatric Allergy and Immunology found that about nine percent of the children suffered from some degree of wheezing, including around six percent with allergy-related asthma. In addition, 17 percent reacted to at least one of the allergens in a skin prick test.
But those with a diet high in fish and “fruity” vegetables were less prone to suffer, the study found.
“The biological mechanisms that underlie the protective effect of these foods is not fully understood, but we believe that the fruity vegetables and fish reduce the inflammation associated with asthma and allergies,” said lead researcher Leda Chatzi from the Department of Social Medicine at the University of Crete.