If your children are eating fast food as little as once or twice a week, you’ve canceled out the benefits of breastfeeding for reducing respiratory disease. That’s the results of a new study that he been published in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy.

The study looked at children in the Canadian province of Manitoba. University of Alberta researchers profiled almost 700 kids, of which 250 had asthma, while 475 did not. Children were followed from birth as a cohort study; however, data on the children’s respiratory health was collected between the ages of 8 and 10.

Anita Kozyrskyi, senior author of the study, said that nutrition is only one factor in the development of asthma. However, the study clearly shows the importance of healthy eating in a child’s younger years. Kozyrskyi said, “Fast food has many negative consequences on the health of children and it remains to be confirmed whether asthma is one of them.” Researchers analyzed results which pointed to correlations between fast food and asthma as well as breastfeeding and asthma, in addition to a combination of these factors.

Korzyrskyi indicated that more research should be done in this area; she hoped this study would inspire others to follow up.

The results showed that at least 3 months of breastfeeding was necessary in order for infants to see the health benefits later. Breastfeeding for less than 12 weeks was linked to a higher asthma risk. However, consumption of fast food more than occasionally negated the benefit of 3 months of breastfeeding. Researchers hypothesize that the fat and salt in fast food can contribute to twitchy airways and wheezing.

The combination of breastfeeding for less than 12 weeks plus a high percentage of fast food consumption yielded the highest asthma risk rates for all children studied. In fact, children in this category had rates of asthma twice as high as kids who had been breastfed longer and did not become high consumers of fast food in childhood.

Source: University of Alberta Express News