It appears that even one peanut butter and jelly sandwich a day could be a negative thing if you have a baby-on-the-way. According to a brand new study from the Netherlands that appeared in July’s second issue of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, eating nut products every day through the course of your pregnancy may increase the risk of your baby developing asthma down the road. The increased risk is more than 50 percent, when compared to women who very rarely (or never) eat nut products during pregnancy.

The study, conducted by the Dutch government, looked at close to 4,000 pregnant women’s dietary questionnaires and asked them about their consumption of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, eggs, milk and milk products, as well as nuts and nut products during the previous month. Their babies’ diets were also tracked and assessed when they were 2 years old. Any asthma and allergy symptoms the toddlers had were assessed yearly up until they turned 8 years old. This gave researchers data to study on 2,832 children and their mothers.

Out of all the mothers involved in the study, 6 percent had consumed nuts or some type of nut products daily. Researchers found that these women’s children were much more likely to have wheezing, shortness-of-breath and use steroids for asthma, than the women who rarely consumed nuts and nut products during their pregnancy. As for the expectant women who rarely consumed nuts and nut products (or even ate them regularly; up to six times a week), there was no increased risk of asthma in their children, according to the study.

Lead author of the study, Saskia M. Willers, M.Sc., said, “it’s too early to make recommendations of avoidance,” but she added, “it’s important for pregnant women to eat healthily, and what is true for many foods is that too much is never good.” After reading the study, I believe eating nut products on a daily basis may not be such a good idea. Moderation seems to be the key. But, really, who eats nut products that much anyways? If you do, you should probably cut back until after delivery to avoid possibly having a child who suffers from asthma.

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