Asthma is more prevalent in Westernized countries. The reasons for this is undetermined. There is a lot of research out there trying to link asthma and diet.
The theme of this month's American Dietetic Association (ADA) journal is Diet and Asthma.
First of all, the juxtaposition of 2 articles really stuck out to me
The first article was an original research article* that looked at the association of TV watching/video gaming, consumption of salty snacks, and the occurrence of asthma.
The other article was a review article* looking at the possibility of using nutrition to prevent or treat asthma.
The latter article really seemed to focus on individual nutrient consumption whereas the first article focused on lifestyle behavior.
In my opinion, the first article is a fairly important contribution to our field. Whereas, focusing on the consumption of an individual nutrient (in the 2nd article) seems a little dated. It concludes that there is a minimal practical link to diet and asthmas--people with asthma, pregnant women, and all people basically should not change or supplement their diet to treat or reduce risk of developing asthma. While I don't know of anyone who recommends doing this, now you know, you don't need to take a special vitamin or nutrient to treat/prevent asthma. It just doesn't work that way.
On the other hand, the research article is looking at something completely different and more important--overall diet patterns and physical activity (or at least, the lack of). I should add that this research was done in Greece--think home of the Mediterranean diet.
In this study, they found a positive association between kids who were eating salty snacks (more than once/week) and watching TV/playing video games. No surprise there. They found that kids who ate salty snacks and were less likely to follow a Med. diet pattern. Not really a surprise. What is interesting is that kids who ate salty snacks more than 3 times/week were significantly more likely to have asthma symptoms. And asthma symptoms were more prominant in salty snack-eating-kids who had more than 2 hours screen time. Kids eating a Med diet were less likely to have asthma symptoms.
Basically, kids who watch lots of TV daily and eat chips often are more likely to have asthma symptoms.
Now, here is the thing with research. Correlation does not equal causation. I doubt it's the TV or even the snack consumption that is CAUSING the asthma symptoms. In fact, studies showed a relationship to fastfood (high sodium/high fat foods) and wheezing symptoms in children but another study failed to show any beneficial effects from low-sodium diet. It really seems to me that it is this sort of sedentery, junk food-eating lifestyle that is really the problem.
Take home message:
- Turn off the TV. (Don't think it's possible? It's hard. I can even do a separate post on that--although it will be as Holly the Mom speaking and not Holly the RD! )
- Slow down on the chips/fast food/etc. This week I will post something on healthy snack choices for kids.
Leave a comment, I would love to hear your opinions!
references: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2011, pages 251-268
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