Researchers have shown that pregnant women can dramatically impact upon the health of their unborn children by determining what sorts of foods they eat while expecting. Expectant mothers who eat a diet rich in high quality and traditional Mediterranean diet were shown to provide their unborn children with a natural remedy for asthma and allergies.

The Mediterranean Diet study was conducted on pregnant women who lived in Menorca, a Spanish island. Researchers from the University of Crete monitored what sort of Mediterranean foods the women ate, and scored them correspondingly.

The pregnant women in the study, who all hailed from Menorca, an island off Spain, were monitored by the quality of the Mediterranean foods that they ate. Mothers’ diets were designated as high quality, low quality, and Western diet. The study started in 1997 and followed 507 pregnant women. Their offspring were monitored until they turned 6.5 years. Although 507 mums were in the study only 468 children were eventually documented. (Some apparently were eliminated for a variety of reasons.)

The children were monitored annually until they reached the age of 6.5 years. These children were also skin tested at the end of the study, which began in 1997, for 6 common respiratory allergens. Researchers also concluded that the diets of the children once born had much less of a protective benefit than the insurance provided by their pregnant mothers’ diets.

What is the Mediterranean Diet? This diet is so called as it is based on a pattern of eating followed by various regional folk who live around the Mediterranean. Typically, Mediterranean cuisine comprises of plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, red wine, and olive oil. Fish is eaten moderately, and red meat is rarely eaten. Dairy products such as eggs, milk, cheeses, yogurts, and poultry are eaten in lesser amounts.

Researchers also discovered that the eating habits of the pregnant mothers played a much more significant role for the prevention of these health issues, than what the children ate themselves. (The children’s diet played no part in the protection from asthma and allergies). The researchers concluded that the Mediterranean diet pregnancy success was linked to the high content of both antioxidants and omegas in the Mediterranean foods. Antioxidants help maintain healthy tissues, and omegas are powerful anti inflammatories.

There are many known and proven Mediterranean Diet health benefits already.These include preventing heart disease, diabetes type 2, prostate cancer, stroke, and many other insidious life shortening diseases that are wide spread through the Western world. The University of Crete study into the Mediterranean Diet and pregnancy has proven that allergies and childhood asthma can be significantly reduced.

Conclusion – Following a quality Mediterranean Diet in pregnancy has been shown to significantly reduce the incidences of both allergies and asthma in the children of these mothers. Maximum protectives benefits were found in the expectant women who close followed a traditional Mediterranean diet and ate at least 3 serves of fish weekly, 8 serves of vegetables weekly, and at least 1 serve of legumes.