How burgers and chips for lunch can worsen your asthma that afternoon

• Food can affect how well your lungs function, how often you have asthma attacks and how well your puffer works.
• Here’s what we know about which foods to eat more of, and which are best to eat in smaller amounts, if you have asthma.

Asthma and inflammation

• This makes it difficult for them to breathe during what’s commonly known as an asthma attack (or exacerbation).
• Researchers are becoming increasingly aware of how someone’s diet can affect their asthma symptoms, including how often they have one of these attacks.
• Read more:
  Passive smoking, synthetic bedding and gas heating in homes show the strongest links to asthma

Thumbs up for fruit and veg

• The Mediterranean diet – a diet high in fruit, vegetables and oily fish – is linked with less wheezing in children, whether or not they have been diagnosed with asthma.
• Some, but not all, of the studies found this was regardless of the children’s body-mass index (BMI) or socioeconomic status.
• However a review looked at five studies that investigated omega-3 intake (through the diet or with a supplement) in adults with asthma.
• Of course there is no harm in eating foods high in omega-3 – such as oily fish, flaxseeds, chia seeds and walnuts.

Thumbs down for saturated fat, sugar, red meat

• Diets high in saturated fats, plus sugar and red meat, can worsen someone’s asthma symptoms.
• Foods high in saturated fat can have an impact in as little as four hours.
• People who ate the meal high in saturated fat had reduced lung function within four hours.

What about dairy?

One food type you don’t have to avoid, though, is dairy products. Although many people with asthma report eating dairy worsens their asthma, evidence shows this to be untrue. In fact, one study in adults with asthma found drinking milk was linked to better lung function.

Read more:
Monday's medical myth: dairy products exacerbate asthma