Western diet increases asthma attack risk
12 January 2009

Following a ‘Western’ diet does not influence asthma risk but may increase the risk of asthma attacks, according to research published in the European Respiratory Journal.

Raphaëlle Varraso and colleagues looked at medical data from almost 55,000 French women enrolled in the E3N study, a study of long-term medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes and cancer.

They identified three distinct dietary patterns: ‘prudent’ (high in fruit and vegetables), ‘Western’ (lots of pizza, salty pies, desserts, pasta and cured meats), and ‘nuts and wine’ (rich in nuts, seeds, salty biscuits, olives and wine).

Participants completed a dietary and health questionnaire. The dietary questionnaire allowed researchers to give dietary pattern scores for each component of the participant’s diet, while the health questionnaire allowed evaluation of any association between dietary habits and incidence of asthma.

At the time of follow-up, 1,063 women reported current asthma from a total of 2,634 who had ever had asthma in adulthood. Of these, around one in five experienced frequent asthma attacks - at least one every week.

The researchers didn’t find any link between a person’s dietary pattern and how likely they were to have asthma. However, in women who did have asthma, they found that a ‘Western’ diet was generally linked to having more frequent asthma attacks.

On the other hand, scoring highly on the ‘nuts and wine’ diet was significantly associated with a lower risk of having frequent asthma attacks. No link was found between the risk of asthma attacks and the prudent diet.

The researchers said that ‘no specific food from the ‘Western’ pattern was associated with frequent asthma attacks, suggesting the deleterious role of the overall diet rather than of one specific food.’

Dr Elaine Vickers, Research Relations Manager at Asthma UK commented: ‘The results of this study add to the evidence a healthy, Mediterranean-style diet rich in nuts, seeds and wine can help control asthma symptoms. We would advise everyone to eat plenty of fruit, vegetables, grains and cereals to stay healthy and ward off infections like colds and flu.’