Eating These Foods While Pregnant Could Reduce Your Baby’s Risk of Asthma

Multiple studies released in the last few years are finding a correlation between your diet while pregnant and your baby’s risk of developing asthma.

One Key Ingredient Is Fiber

Studies from Monash University in Australia as well as Hunter research are indicating that when pregnant mothers eat a diet that is high in fiber, that their children show lower instances of developing asthma.

Why Does This Happen?

While the direct cause is not known, there are many benefits to a high fiber diet.

Fiber contributes to Acetate production & Acetate reduces inflammation

Eating a diet high in fiber has the beneficial impact of producing a fatty acid called acetate that circulates through the bloodstream. This fatty acid is known to have an anti-inflammatory effect.

In studies performed with pregnant mice, high fiber diets lead to an increase in anti-inflammatory metabolies, which had the effect of suppressing asthma related genes in the developing fetus.

How Much Fiber Do You Need?

The Mayo Clinic recommends eating 21 to 25 grams per day for women. This can prove challenging for many people who do not closely monitor the ingredients in the foods they eat.

Top foods for fiber include:

Raspberries
Spaghetti
Split peas
Artichoke
Green Peas

For a full table of recommended foods, and fiber content, see the mayo clinic website.

What If You Already Have Asthma?

If you already have asthma, taking steps towards preventing it is no longer a practical solution. Therefore, a comprehensive treatment plan is needed. Talk to your doctor about steps for reducing asthma attacks and treating it with medications and inhalers.

Complementary Treatments for Asthma

If you are still looking for additional treatments to add to your arsenal, try out an air purifier. By removing particles from the air, you can help reduce the potential asthma triggers that you or your children encounter. If you don’t have dust or allergens in the air, you can potentially avoid an asthma attack before it happens.

Best Air Purifiers For Asthma

The best air purifiers for Asthma will be high performance, high efficiency and low noise units. These should offer both HEPA filtration as well as carbon to remove other potential airborne irritants like odors and chemicals.