Apple Juice Might be Particularly Effective to Protect Children Against Asthma

31/05/07 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.

In this study, apples do not seem to be particularly protective but apple juice made from concentrate does. Although this is a surprise, the more apple juice the children are taking, the more they seem to be protected. This means that it is unlikely that this relationship is coincidental.

Eating other fruits, with the exception of bananas, and drinking orange juice do not seem to be protective, and this has led Peter Burney to rethink what mechanisms may be at work. The protective effects of bananas are less certain from this study but may be worth studying further.