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Changes in Your Diet May Help Reduce or Control Asthma Symptoms
Foods That May Help Relieve Asthma Symptoms
Can diet help your asthma? Research suggests eating an overall healthy, balanced diet can help. While there’s no magic-bullet food to cure asthma, making some changes in your diet may help reduce or control asthma symptoms.
According to a review about the role of food in asthma management published in November 2017 in Nutrients, there is evidence that a traditional Western diet can increase inflammation and worsen asthma symptoms. This is a diet high in:
- Refined grains;
- Red meat;
- Processed meat; and
- Sweets.
A diet filled with more fruits and vegetables can positively impact both asthma risk and control. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables, as well as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (particularly omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA]) and lower in added sugars and processed and red meats tend to be better for asthma management.
The Mediterranean diet is an example of a diet based on eating plenty of:
- Healthy fats (like olive oil);
- Fish;
- Whole grains; and
- Fruit.
There is some preliminary evidence to suggest that following this diet may indeed be linked to lower rates of asthma, according to a study of Peruvian children published in the December 2015 issue of Lung.
While dietary changes can help you manage asthma symptoms and may lessen the severity of symptoms you have, no diet should substitute for medications or other treatment your doctor has prescribed to help manage your asthma. Dietary changes alone cannot cure or reverse asthma.
To access the full article on diet and asthma, click here.
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