Eating nuts when pregnant linked to asthma

Pregnant women who eat lots of nuts may increase the chances of their baby being born with asthma, according to a report in the Guardian. The news comes after a dietary study of 4,000 mothers-to-be and the resultant health of their children up until they are eight. Asthma or problems like wheezing were far more common in the children of women who ate nutty foods every day of their pregnancy. The problems may occur because of the children's exposure to the allergy-causing substances in nuts while in the womb.

"It could be that the allergens in nuts are transferred to the baby in the uterus, increasing the risk of sensitisation and therefore raising their chances of developing the condition," the study's leader, Saskia Willers of the University of Utrecht in Holland, told the Guardian.

Willers did not say pregnant women should completely avoid nuts, but should have a balanced diet and not have too much of one thing.

Meanwhile other scientists have found that a type of bacterium that lives the stomach may stop children from developing asthma.

A study by New York University's Langone Medical Centre has found that children between three and 13 carrying the helicobacter pylori bacterium have a 59 per cent lower chance of having asthma.