Women who follow a Mediterranean diet while pregnant could help stave off asthma and allergies in their children, a new study suggests. The traditional Mediterranean diet is rich in plant-based foods—vegetables, fruits, whole grain breads and cereals, legumes, and nuts—as well as olive oil and fish. Adherents consume low to moderate amounts of dairy products and eggs, lesser amounts of white meat, and infrequently eat red meat. Some studies have suggested that such eating patterns can lower children’s odds of asthma symptoms and skin and nasal allergies. Researchers at the University of Crete in Greece followed 460 mother/child pairs, from pregnancy until the children were six years old. The researchers found that the majority of mothers scored high in Mediterranean diet. Children whose mothers ate eight or more vegetable servings per week during pregnancy were less likely to develop persistent wheezing. The same was true of children whose mothers ate three or more fish servings a week.

Gastric bypass surgery controls diabetes
Obesity surgery can cause Type 2 diabetes to go into remission, but much depends on how much weight the patient loses within the first few months, a new study suggests. Gastric bypass surgery for severe obesity has been shown to control Type 2 diabetes, a disorder that commonly goes hand-in-hand with obesity. The procedure involves sectioning off a small portion of the stomach, creating a pouch that limits the amount of food a person can eat in one sitting. The new study, by surgeons at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, shows that hormones are not the whole story. The amount of weight patients shed in the first six months after surgery appears key to diabetes remission.

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