Healthy diet behaviours are associated with less asthma symptoms and greater asthma control

This research shows that a healthy diet may have a role in preventing the onset of asthma as well as controlling asthma in adults. Here you can see a summary of the reasearch and also my takeaways from the study if you scroll down.

 

• European Respiratory Journal

Associations between asthma and the nutritional quality of diet remain poorly understood. So they did a study 'Associations between dietary scores with asthma symptoms and asthma control in adults' which was printed in the European Respiratory Journal. 

There were 34, 766 participants from the NutriNet-Santé cohort who answered a detailed respiratory questionnaire.

They investigated the connections between overall quality of diet and the asthma symptom score and asthma control. They used three dietary scores:  

• the Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010) 
• the literature-based adherence score to Mediterranean diet (MEDI-LITE) 
• the modified Programme National Nutrition Santé Guideline Score (mPNNS-GS)

Quality of diet was assessed based on three randomly collected 24-hour dietary records and each participant’s adherence to three dietary scores. They considered diets with high fruit, vegetable and whole grain cereal intake as the healthiest, while diets high in meat, salt and sugar were the least healthy.

The researchers adjusted their analysis to consider other factors known to be linked with asthma, such as smoking and exercise.

The data showed that, overall, men who ate a healthier diet had a 30% lower chance of experiencing asthma symptoms. In women with healthier diets, the chance of experiencing symptoms was 20% lower.

The researchers say that the results suggest a healthy diet may have a role in preventing the onset of asthma as well as controlling asthma in adults.

“A healthy diet, as assessed by the dietary scores we used, is mostly made up of a high intake of fruit, vegetables and fibre. These have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and are elements in a healthy diet that potentially lower symptoms. In contrast, the least healthy diets include high consumption of meat, salt and sugar, and these are elements with pro-inflammatory capacities that may potentially worsen symptoms of asthma.”

STUDY DETAILS: 

Associations between dietary scores with asthma symptoms and asthma control in adults Roland M. Andrianasolo, Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot, Moufidath Adjibade, Serge Hercberg, Pilar Galan, Raphaëlle Varraso. European Respiratory Journal  2018 52:  1702572;  DOI:  10.1183/13993003.02572-2017

MY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS RESEARCH:

The researchers discuss a healthy diet as one which is "mostly made up of a high intake of fruit, vegetables and fibre" and does not include a "high consumption of meat, salt and sugar." This would exclude many diets such as the Atkins diet and the Keto or Paleo diet and others that severely limit carbs. It would include, as healthy, a macrobiotic diet, the CSIRO diet, a plant based diet and my personal favourite the Mediterranean diet which has been proven to improve cardiovascular health. You can find out more about this diet at Mediterranean diet simplified.