According to a Dutch study, food choices during pregnancy can lead to allergies in the unborn child.
In particular, this seems to be the case with groundnut and groundnut products which, if consumed on a daily basis, can increase the risk of asthma by 50%.
Researchers came up with this result after analysing the dietary habits of 4,000 mothers-to-be who were asked to answer a very precise questionnaire.
Researchers then monitored their children’s health up to the age of eight.
This allowed them to establish a clear relationship between the daily consumption of groundnuts – in whatever form – and the risk of asthma in children.
This is the first study to show this correlation, the author comments with surprise.
However, she stops short of recommending that pregnant women should avoid eating groundnut products, which in a country like the Netherlands where chips and mayonnaise are so popular, is easy to understand
Nevertheless, she does stress the importance of varying one’s diet and eating a little of everything in moderation.
