There has been growing interest in the possibility that
childhood asthma may be linked to maternal diet during
pregnancy and early life nutrition, and this is one of the
areas covered in the British Nutrition Foundation’s
(BNF) latest Task Force report, Nutrition and development:
short and long-term consequences for health
(BNF 2013). The Task Force report concludes that it
seems highly likely that dietary factors can modify the
likelihood of developing asthma and allergic disease by
influencing organ formation and immune development.
There is now a lot of interest in the nutrient content of
the maternal diet during pregnancy (e.g. vitamins D and
E, zinc, selenium and polyunsaturated fatty acids) and
whether it may be possible to alter the maternal diet in
order to reduce the burden of childhood asthma and
allergic conditions. However, the limited evidence to
date suggests that while there are associations between
components of the maternal diet and childhood asthma,
further research is required to determine whether any of
these nutrients have any therapeutic benefit (Devereux
& Prabhu 2013).