Fast Food Boosts Asthma Risk

Faster is not always better. When it comes to food, for example, research has shown that fast food can weaken the bones of people who eat too much of it for too many years. Now comes a report that links fast food to an increased risk of asthma, hay fever and eczema. HealthDay reports that when researchers at the University of Nottingham studied health and dietary data on more than 319,000 teens aged 13 and 14 from 51 countries and more than 181,000 kids aged 6 and 7 from 31 countries they found that three or more fast food meals a week was associated with a 39 percent increased risk of severe asthma among teens, and three fast food meals for younger children was associated with a 27 percent increased risk of severe asthma, as well higher risk of rhinitis and eczema. Wait, there’s some good news: Fruit, the researchers found, appeared to reduce the incidence and severity of these conditions for all the children, and for incidence and severity of wheeze and rhinitis among the teens. In fact, three or more weekly servings of fruit reduced the severity of symptoms 11 percent among the teens and 14 percent among the children. Read more from HealthDay.