• Posted August 28, 2025

Fatty Foods Might Contribute To Childhood Asthma

Fatty foods might contribute to asthma in children, a new study says.

Fats found in certain foods are linked to neutrophilic asthma, a non-allergic type of asthma triggered by microbial and bacterial proteins, researchers reported Aug. 27 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Specifically, a type of saturated fatty acid called stearic acid – often found in animal fat and processed foods – appears to start a chain reaction that can lead to neutrophilic asthma, researchers said.

“Prior to this study, many suspected that childhood obesity was causing this form of asthma,” said senior researcher Dr. David Hill, an attending physician in allergy and immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“However, we were observing neutrophilic asthma in children who weren’t obese, which is why we suspected there might be another mechanism,” Hill said in a news release. “What we found in both preclinical work and studies in children was that diets containing certain saturated long chain fatty acids can cause neutrophilic asthma independent from obesity.”

Neutrophilic asthma is more difficult to treat than allergic asthma, researchers said in background notes, and more likely to cause symptoms severe enough to land patients in a hospital.

Work with laboratory mice revealed that stearic acid can cause an accumulation of lung macrophages, a type of white blood cell that coordinates immune function during inflammation, researchers report.

On the other hand, an unsaturated fatty acid called oleic acid appeared to suppress inflammation, results show.

The team also found that certain drugs that block inflammatory proteins protected against lung inflammation driven by stearic acid.

These findings were confirmed in a group of children with obesity and asthma, researchers said.

“Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in children, and different treatments may be needed depending on the subtype of asthma,” said researcher Dr. Lisa Young, chief of pulmonary and sleep medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“While there are many risk factors and triggers that are associated with asthma, this study provides evidence about how specific dietary components are linked to a particularly difficult-to-treat form of asthma,” she said in a news release. “These findings are encouraging because they provide new treatment strategies and suggest that targeted dietary modifications may help prevent this asthma type.”

More information

The American Lung Association has more on types of asthma.

SOURCE: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, news release, Aug. 27, 2025