Does maternal diet during pregnancy have any influence on health outcomes of children relating to allergies? How about when the mother is
Photo Credit: Content Providers(s): CDC/James Gathany [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commonsbreast-feeding that child? Does her diet then have an influence on the child’s health?
A recent review performed a meta-analysis on 42 studies with a total of greater than 40,000 children to see if maternal diet during pregnancy and during lactation (breast-feeding) played any role in the health of those children.
The studies included in the review varied in nature in terms of their experimental protocols: 11 were intervention studies, 26 were prospective cohort studies, 4 were retrospective cohort studies, and 1 was a case-controlled study. Comparing studies with different experimental designs can be somewhat problematic, but there are ways to compare on a more broad scale.
Important findings:
There were no significant differences overall in eczema or asthma cases in the offspring of mothers eating a diet free of common food allergens. Some of the studies did note some associations, though nothing statistically significant was found.
One of the few consistent associations found related to those mothers consuming diets containing a lot of fruits, vegetables, fish, Vitamin D-rich foods, and in general foods pertaining to the Mediterranean diet. Children of these mothers were found to be associated with a lower risk of allergic disease.
Foods in the diet of pregnant and lactating mothers that were associated with a higher risk of allergic disease in children included vegetable oil, margarine, nuts, and fast food.
While this meta-review did not find statistically significant differences, it does provide some insights that a Mediterranean-like diet may consistently provide some benefit to their offspring in terms of a reduction in allergic disease prevalence. It can be difficult to compare studies that used markedly different experimental designs after the fact, so this positive association should indicate a need for further research on this topic.
A new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) by a large cohort of Spanish doctors and scientists found that the “Mediterranean diet”, like the diet frequently consumed by the French and other cultures throughout the Mediterranean area (think: French Paradox), is not correlated with the onset of metabolic syndrome, and in many cases actually reversed the condition in those experiences symptoms.
Metabolic syndrome, also known as insulin resistance or pre-diabetes, is a common health problem in modern times that can be caused by obesity, sedentary behaviors, stress, and poor diet.
Building on the idea that the Mediterranean diet, as evident in the so-called French Paradox, somehow protects against these diet and weight-related disorders, Spanish researchers found that in looking at just shy of 6000 patients that were at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, a Mediterranean diet featuring extra virgin olive oil and/or nuts prevented the signs and symptoms of metabolic syndrome from occurring. Additionally, a Mediterranean diet featuring extra virgin olive oil and/or nuts was also associated with the reversal of metabolic syndrome symptoms in those patients already exhibiting these characteristics at the beginning of the study.
![Photo By Dave Gough (originally posted to Flickr as wine) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://french-paradox.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Pouring_red_wine_into_a_glass_french_paradox.jpg)
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