Pregnant? Consider the Mediterranean diet
If you’re like me, you try (or tried) to eat a healthier array of foods while pregnant, for the unborn baby’s health and well-being. Did you know this, though? Pregnant women who eat a Mediterranean diet rich in fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, dairy products and olive oil may help protect their children against asthma and allergies.
So says a new study of over 400 mothers and their children. Of the seventeen percent of kids who had asthma-like symptoms, allergies, or both, most of their moms did not eat a high-quality Mediterranean diet.
Pregnant women who ate vegetables more than eight times a week, fish more than three times a week, and legumes more than once a week seemed to protect their children the most from asthma and allergies. Mothers who ate red meat more than three to four times a week seemed to increase their children’s risk.
I didn’t know that about red meat…let’s hope it doesn’t come back to haunt my kids later. The Mediterranean diet doesn’t sound like a bad idea for anyone wishing to improve his or her eating habits anyway, and with this new information, I would definitely try to follow it if I were to become pregnant again (after I fainted from shock).
Posted by Sunshine.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:53 am
sometimes these studies (I swear) seem just like they are out to scare pregnant mothers. I ate red meat with BOTH my pregnancies and neither of my daughters have any allergies.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I find this topic to be very interesting. I just returned from taking my 13 months old daughter to be tested for allergies. She tested positive for a peanut allergy (which we already knew). The doctor asked if I ate nuts/peanuts during pregnancy and I said yes, quite often. He told me that because of that I have passed this sensitivity to her. He said the same goes for high amounts of fish and shellfish.
We are constantly getting conflicting information from professionals. I’m starting to wonder if they really have a clue.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Wow, lots of medical bashing. I’m pretty sure they aren’t creating studies to scare women but to try to improve everyone’s health, since the US is constantly being bashed for having a poor performance. Darned if they do….
2SweetGirls, there is varying data about what you eat during pregnancy passing along allergies. I ate nuts during all of my pregnancies, Caitlin is the only one allergic. Obviously, she already had that tendency. There are some studies that show that being exposed helps prevent allergies. They definitely are continuing to do research to find out the best approach.