Full milk and butter tipped to help keep asthma at bay

By MAXINE FRITH

Milk and butter may help protect young children against asthma.

A study by Dutch scientists found that daily consumption of full cream milk and butter was linked with significantly reduced rates of the condition.

Other dairy products, such as yoghurt and chocolate milk, were also found to decrease the likelihood of developing wheeze and asthma.

Researchers analysed the diets of almost 3000 2-year-olds for a study published in the journal Thorax. The results were related to the number of children who suffered from asthma at the age of 3. Children who had a daily intake of butter and full fat milk had significantly lower rates of asthma, the researchers found.

Similarly, incidence of wheezing was lower in children who consumed dairy products, including yoghurt and chocolate milk, every day. Lower rates of asthma and wheezing were also linked to daily consumption of brown bread.

But although children who consumed fruit juice and vegetables every day were less likely to be asthmatic than other youngsters, the difference was too small to be statistically significant.

Dr Alet Wijga, from the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, wrote in the journal: "Our data provide evidence for a beneficial association between daily consumption of milk fat-containing products and asthma and wheeze in young children.

"Various components of the products involved could play a role, such as different fatty acids, but also antioxidants or other micro-nutrients."

Other researchers have suggested a possible link between soaring rates of asthma in the West and attempts to replace saturated fats in the diet with unsaturated fat.

Some experts believe higher intakes of linoleic acid, caused by substituting margarine for butter, may be largely to blame.

The Dutch scientists said: "If the proportion of linoleic acid in the diet is relevant to the development of asthma, this could partly explain our findings."

However, the data showed no independent association between margarine and asthma or wheeze.

- INDEPENDENT