An international study involving Bay of Plenty teenagers has discovered a link in the severity of asthma to fast food consumption.
A total of 4126 Bay of Plenty youth including 1976 aged 13 to 14-years-old and 2150 children aged six and seven-years-old participated in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood that studied the diet of children and adolescents.
Eating fast food has been linked to asthma in youths.
They were part of the 319,000 youths from 51 different countries as well as 181,000 six to seven-year-olds and more than 181,000 six to seven-year-olds in 31 countries took part in the study.
University of Auckland department of paediatrics professor Innes Asher says the results suggest a fast food diet may be contributing to the rise in asthma (wheeze); rhino conjunctivitis, which produces a runny or blocked nose accompanied by itchy and watery eyes; and eczema.
She says these conditions, if proved causal, could have huge implications for public health, given the popularity of fast foods.
Teens who ate three or more servings of fast food were 39 per cent more likely to suffer from severe asthma, while in children the risk was increased by 27 per cent.
Those involved in the study were asked on the severity of symptoms over the preceding 12 months, including frequency and interference with daily life and/or sleep patterns as well as certain types of food already linked to protective or damaging effects on health.
These included meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, pulses, cereals, bread and pasta, rice, butter, margarine, nuts, potatoes, milk, eggs, and fast food/burgers.
Consumption was categorised as never; occasionally; once or twice a week; and three or more times a week.
Innes says there was a 15 per cent reduction in asthma in children who ate three or more serves of fruit a day.
'If the associations between fast foods and the symptom prevalence of asthma, rhino conjunctivitis and eczema is causal, then the findings have major public health significance owing to the rising consumption of fast foods globally.”
What do you think?
3 comments
Interesting
Posted on 17-01-2013 20:08 | By whatsinaname
i asthmatic and have been all my life. as a kid never ate fast foods, and very rarely eat fast foods now. so what am i to believe. We are not all the same....... interesting survey though
Dubious?
Posted on 18-01-2013 08:10 | By nerak
In a world where facts/figures can be twisted to show a certain leaning, I read the original article on Stuff a few days ago. And re read it. Nowhere did I see a particular food identified. "Fast food" is also made/cooked at home on occasion. And is blamed for a multitude of health problems. I know of several asthmatics who in younger years lived in a world which didn't have "fast food", yet still had asthma. I think some commonsense should be applied to this article, starting with identification of foods concerned.
Disagree
Posted on 18-01-2013 10:41 | By Cruisy Suzy
As a child i had asthma, ezcema and plenty of allergies. We were never allowed takeaways. I don't remember my Mum ever buying us anything other than Fish n Chips which we probably had about twice a year. I also ate exactly the same food at meal times as other people in my family yet my sister never got asthma, eczema or allergies. So not sure if i believe in this as it doesn't really add up to me. If i ate exactly the same diet as the rest of my family which was normally meat and veges every single meal and had takeaways about every 6 months then why did my brother and i get asthma etc but my sister didn't suffer from any of them?
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