Eating Apples, Fish During Pregnancy Protects Kids From Allergies, Asthma

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"We were quite surprised to see a protective effect of apples, because, to our knowledge, no other study had seen that before," said Willers. "For fish, there is an earlier study that found a protective effect of maternal fish intake during pregnancy on childhood asthma."

No protective effect was found against asthma or allergic diseases from many other foods, including vegetables, fruit juice, citrus or kiwi fruit, whole grain products, fat from dairy products or margarine or other low-fat spreads.

The study speculated that apples may be beneficial because they contain flavonoids, which have been associated with a reduced risk of asthma in other studies, while fish's protective effect may be due to their omega-3 fatty acids.

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"The authors' explanations are plausible," said Dr. Carlos Camargo, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School. "It's curious, however, why only apples would be protective, since flavonoids are present in other foods. This will require further work. The first step, however, is to see if other investigators find the same associations in other birth cohorts."

Dr. Augusto A. Litonjua, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said this study adds to the growing literature that prenatal factors, specifically maternal diet during pregnancy, can affect the development of wheezing illnesses, asthma and allergies in young children.

It's too early, though, to recommend how much fish and apples pregnant women should eat, Willers said. Rather, it's important for them to follow a healthy, balanced diet.

Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, added that pregnant women should be careful about not eating too much fish because of the potential mercury and other pollutants in fish.

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