Could that peanut butter and jelly sandwich you pack in your child’s lunch box be contributing to his asthma?  Or maybe it’s the high fructose corn syrup in her fruit juice making her wheezing worse?  Most people are unaware of the powerful role that diet and nutrition play in controlling and preventing asthma.  As a nutritionist, I have seen children reduce or alleviate their asthma symptoms with food and key nutrients. 

Asthma cannot necessarily be cured, but most kids with asthma can control it so they have fewer symptoms and can stay active.  First, it’s important to understand what happens in the body when someone has asthma.  Asthma is a chronic disease that affects your airways, the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs.  If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways are inflamed or swollen.  This makes the airways sensitive, so they react strongly to things that you are allergic to or find irritating.  When the airways react, they get narrower and less air flows to your lungs, causing symptoms like wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and difficulty breathing. 

Let’s address the inflammation first.  How does the food you feed your children affect inflammation?  The answer: certain foods provoke inflammation and others help soothe it.  Let’s start with foods that provoke inflammation and should be avoided or limited:

• Sugar and processed carbohydrates: e.g., fruit snacks, cold cereals, flavored yogurts, candy, juice, breakfast bars, pop tarts, chips, white bread, crackers.
  
• Trans fats and processed fats: e.g., store-bought bakery items, many pre-packaged foods, many crackers, some ice creams, fast food, anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in the ingredients.

Sugar and bad fats are often a huge part of the problem in kids with asthma.  Last year the Journal of Asthma published a study of over 2,000 fifth-graders that found those regularly drinking sweetened beverages were at an increased risk of developing respiratory symptoms and asthma.

What’s a parent to do?  If kids aren’t eating macaroni and cheese or pop tarts, what are we supposed to feed them?  Fortunately, there are numerous healthy options that taste great.  Here are some of my toddler’s favorites:

• Instead of cold cereal for breakfast, make scrambled eggs and whole grain toast with butter or real peanut butter.
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  A tasty morning snack is organic, plain, whole-milk yogurt topped with walnut pieces (if they are able to chew them).
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  Homemade soups or chili are a hit at lunch.  Or for a quick noon meal, try tuna mixed with real mayo on top of one slice of bread.  Serve with fresh fruit.
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  An afternoon snack could be a piece of string cheese and baby carrots.
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  For dinner, serve meat, vegetables and baby red potatoes or sweet potatoes.  Top potatoes with butter.

Not only do these kid-friendly suggestions provide real foods in balance, they also offer nutrients that protect against asthma triggers.  And the healthy fats in these wholesome snacks actually help sooth inflammation and irritation.

Next, let’s examine “triggers” that may cause an asthma attack.  Sugar, processed foods and bad fats cause inflammation, making breathing difficult for kids with asthma.  In addition, certain foods and/or environmental pollutants can cause symptoms to flare.  These “triggers” vary from child to child, but common ones are gluten (the protein found in wheat, barley, rye and other related grains), dairy and eggs.  If your child has other allergies, skin problems or other immune problems, you may want to consider whether these foods are “triggers” for your child.  In the above study of fifth graders, eggs showed a strong correlation with inducing asthma symptoms.

One final step to alleviating asthma symptoms is to ensure that your child’s digestive system is healthy.  Our digestive system (especially our small intestine) makes up over two-thirds of our immune system.  By maximizing digestive health, you are giving the immune system a huge boost and helping calm inflammation.   To achieve great digestive health:

• Eliminate processed foods (e.g., crackers, cold cereals, pop tarts, breakfast bars, etc.)
  
• Include good bacteria daily.  Bifidobacteria comes in a kid-friendly powder form.  Start with 1/8 tsp and work up to ¼ tsp once or twice per day.

If eating this way is new for you, start small.  Pick one idea to incorporate, like removing crackers and white bread from your house.  After that has become routine, move on to the next thing.  It’s all about taking “baby steps.”  Over time, you will see a huge difference in your child’s health.  Children are our most precious resource; they represent the future of our communities. Feed them well!

This article was published in My Healthy Beginnings, a Twin Cities magazine for naturally raising families.