New research further supports the link between a mother's diet during pregnancy and her child's risk of developing allergies, reports Medical News Today in Mother's Diet Influences Baby's Allergies.

Published in The Journal of Physiology, the research found specifically that if a mother's diet includes a particular category of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), these " improve how gut immune cells respond to bacteria and foreign substances, making the baby less likely to suffer from allergies." These PUFAs can be found in foods such as fish, walnut oil, and flaxseed.

Previous findings have linked fish and walnut oil supplementation during pregnancy with a child's likelihood to develop allergies. What makes this research different is the discovery of how this supplementation works to minimize allergies.

Dr. Gaëlle Boudry, of the INRA research institute in Rennes, France explains it this way: "Our study identifies that a certain group of polyunsaturated fatty acids known as n-3PUFAs causes a change in how a baby's gut develops, which in turn might change how the gut immune system develops. These changes are likely to reduce the risk of developing allergies in later life."

More specifically, according to Medical News Today, "The team found that supplementing a mother's diet with n-3PUFA caused the new-born's gut to become more permeable. A more permeable gut enables bacteria and new substances to pass through the lining of the gut into the bloodstream more easily. These new substances then trigger the baby's immune response and the production of antibodies."

These n-3PUFA fatty acids have also been shown to increase gestational length and maturation of the central nervous system as well as improve performance of mental tasks in early childhood.

For more on food and allergies, see:
How to Treat Allergies with Herbs, Foods, and Supplements
Super Foods that Help Fight Allergies
Foods that Aggravate Allergies and Foods that Fight Allergies