Peanuts or Apples?

Filed in archive Pregnancy on May 6, 2007

The controversy continues over whether it's safe to eat peanuts when you're pregnant? Could eating peanuts cause allergy problems for your child? According to the Montreal Gazette:

Eating peanuts during pregnancy during pregnancy appears to quadruple the risk that the baby will be allergic to nuts, according to a Montreal researcher.

A post in The Allergizer Blog says:

I can't remember having eaten an unusual amount of peanuts during my pregnancy, nor have I consciously avoided it. And yet, I gave birth to a son who later on showed a number of food allergies, milk, egg and peanuts being on top of the list.

However, later in the post, she adds:

I have a friend who skipped peanuts 100% during her pregnancy. Nevertheless, the child still had food allergies, including allergy to peanuts. That shows that although it may (or may not) be true that skipping peanuts can reduce the risks, there are no guarantees.

But why take chances? Why not opt for a healthier choice, like fruit. An article in the Nigerian Tribune talks about eating apples:

The researchers found that children of mothers who munched on more than four apples per week were 37 per cent less likely to have a history of wheezing and 53 per cent less likely to have doctor-confirmed asthma, compared to mothers who ate one or no apples per week while pregnant.

The specific association found with apples, and not with the total amount of fruits eaten or with citrus, fruit juice or vegetable consumption, hints at an apple-specific effect, the researchers said, possibly because of its phytochemical content, such as flavonoids, which have been shown to have beneficial effects on adult lung function.