Maternal, childhood fructose intake linked to asthma

the Clinical Advisor take:

A high intake of fructose during the second trimester of pregnancy and in children aged 2 years is associated with an increased risk of asthma, according to a study presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology meeting in Houston.

A mother’s intake of sugar-sweetened drinks during pregnancy increased their child’s risk of developing asthma by 22%, and a similar association was seen in children who consumed a lot of fructose at age 2.

The study included 1,111 mother-child pairs from the Project Viva longitudinal pre-birth cohort study. The researchers estimated maternal fructose intake and the children’s fructose intake at age 2 from self-reported food frequency questionnaires.

At a median age of 7.7 years, the researchers evaluated asthma prevalence based on self-reported confirmation of diagnosis. They found that 19.7% of children had been diagnosed with asthma.

When they examined the relationships of different types of fructose with asthma risk, the researchers found that the children of mothers who drank sugar-sweetened beverages during pregnancy had the highest risk of asthma. Children who drank more juice at age 2 had a higher risk as well.

The study also found that mothers with the highest fructose intake tended to have a lower family income, a higher BMI, and were more likely to be black.

In addition to asthma, fructose intake has been linked to dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, hypertension, and gout.