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A healthy diet that includes fruit rich in vitamin C and fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids could help control asthma symptoms in your teenager. But, how will you convince your teenager to eat these healthy foods? In a study, involving 2000 twelfth grade students from around the U.S. and Canada, 86 percent didn’t eat their five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables everyday.
The study lasted about a year, during which time the researchers asked the teens about their diets, their general health, their respiratory symptoms, and tested the teenagers’ lung function. The teenagers involved in the study who had the lowest consumption of vitamin C and omega-3 fatty acids reported having more respiratory symptoms and tended to have lower pulmonary function than those who consumed more.
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The teenagers, involved in the study, were mostly Caucasian with one-third of them being overweight and approximately one-quarter of them were smokers. Most of the teenagers did not take a daily multivitamin and about one-third did not consume recommended portions of fruits, vegetables, vitamins A and E, beta-carotene and omega-3 fatty acids.
The researchers discovered that eating less than one-quarter of a serving of fruit daily resulted in lower than average lung-function scores. Consuming less than 5.2 milligrams of Vitamin E a day seemed to increase the risk of reported asthma. Consuming less than 22 milligrams a day of omega-3 fatty acids seemed to increase the odds of chronic bronchitis, wheezing and asthma. Not surprisingly, the teenagers in the study with the lowest intake of omega-3 fatty acids were nearly 70 percent more likely than the rest of the study group to report have asthma symptoms.
About nine million children in the U.S. have asthma according to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. While there is no cure, avoiding triggers, and treatment of the symptoms, including reducing inflammation of the airways are important factors in controlling the disease.
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Learn about your children’s nutrient requirements. Some of them, such as the requirements for iron and calcium, change as your child ages.
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