In a study that involved 62000 Danish mothers, the
researchers concluded that those mothers who avoided eating peanuts and tree
nuts while pregnant (that was for a long time the advice given by doctors to
try to minimize the odds that a pregnant woman’s baby would develop allergies
and/or asthma) actually had more babies diagnosed with asthma than did moms who
did not avoid eating peanuts and tree nuts during their pregnancies.
The real bottom line here is that with certain minor
exceptions, we know practically zilch about how to prevent asthma and allergies
(we’re somewhat better at treating both those problems, although not nearly as
good as we should be) so any advice a pregnant woman gets about what to do to
prevent an allergy in the baby she is carrying should be taken with a very
large grain of salt.
