A higher consumption of apple juice may protect against wheezing in children suffering from asthma, revealed by British researchers recently in UK.
The study published in the European Respiratory Journal.
There has recently been a great deal of interest in the possibility that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables might protect against asthma. More specifically, a study of adult asthma performed some years ago in Greenwich (UK) suggested that apples might be particularly effective.
Peter Burney (National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK) and his colleagues therefore asked the parents of primary school children about how much fruit and fruit juice their children were consuming. The authors then compared the answers for the children who did and did not have asthma symptoms.
“We investigated whether wheezing is less common in children who consume more apples and other fruits. We carried out a population based survey of 2640 primary school children aged 5-10 years in Greenwich, south London. Information about asthma symptoms and fruit consumption was obtained by questionnaire”, Peter Burney.
After controlling for potential confounders, eating bananas one or more times daily (compared to eating less than once a month) was negatively associated with current wheeze (odds ratio 0.66 (95% CI: 0.44, 1.00); p=0.05), and with ever wheeze (OR 0.69 (0.50, 0.95); p=0.02), but not with ever asthma (OR 0.80 (0.56,1.14); p=0.22). Drinking apple juice from concentrate one or more times a day (compared to drinking less than once a month) was also negatively associated with current wheeze (OR 0.53 (34, 0.83); p=0.006), weakly associated with ever wheeze (OR 0.74 (-0.54, 1.02); p=0.07), but not associated with ever asthma. Consumption of apples, other fruits and orange juice was not significantly associated with asthma symptoms.
“We found no association between eating fresh apples and asthma symptoms in this population, but found some evidence to suggest that a higher consumption of apple juice from concentrate, and bananas, may protect against wheezing in children”, concluded researchers.