Eating high saturated fat from food such as burgers could lower children’s immune systems, according to new research.
The research, published in the journal Thorax, investigated over 181,000 children aged six and seven and 319,000 aged 13 and 14. They looked at the diets or the participants and whether any of the children had allergy symptoms.
The results found that teenagers who ate junk food three times a week or more were more likely to get severe asthma. Younger children were also more at risk.
The findings also suggest that three weekly portions of fruit and vegetables could cut the risk in the younger group and among the teenagers.
However, the authors stressed that the findings do not prove that junk food causes these symptoms, just that an association has been seen between the two factors.