Eating Nuts During Pregnancy Safe, Lowers Allergy Risk in Baby

Eating nuts is not only safe during pregnancy, but is also linked with a lower risk of food allergy in children, researchers said.

Expecting mothers can eat peanut butter as long as they don't suffer from any food allergy. However, researchers have cautioned that their study doesn't prove a cause and effect relationship.

Allergic reaction to food is common among children.  According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC, about four out of every hundred children in the U.S suffers from a food allergy.

During the 1990s, doctors believed that pregnant women eating nuts could increase risk of food allergy in children. Mothers were asked to stay away from nuts during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, the Guardian reported. This guideline was retracted in 2008 when researchers found no evidence backing this hypothesis.

The present study was conducted by A. Lindsay Frazier, of the Dana-Farber Children's Cancer Center, Boston, and colleagues.

For the study, researchers obtained data from Nurses' Health Study II. Among the 8,205 children, they identified over 300 children with food allergy, including 140 cases of nut allergy, according to a news release.

The team found that children of non-allergic mothers, who ate more than five servings of nuts per week, had lower risk of developing nut allergy than other children.

"In women who ate peanuts and tree nuts more than five times a week, they had children that had a 30 percent reduction in the risk of developing peanut and tree nut allergies," Michael Young of Boston Children's Hospital and one of the study authors, told CBS news.

Nuts are a great source of good fats and fiber. A latest study showed that people eating a handful of nuts every day had a lower chance of cardiovascular disease and were even slimmer than people who didn't eat nuts.

"Our study supports the hypothesis that early allergen exposure increases the likelihood of tolerance and thereby lowers the risk of childhood food allergy. Additional prospective studies are needed to replicate this finding," the study concludes. "In the meantime, our data support the recent decisions to rescind recommendations that all mothers avoid P/TN (peanut or tree nut) during pregnancy and breastfeeding."

The study is published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Pregnant women should always consult their doctor before taking up any new diet or exercise regimen.