From nurture to Nature--the story of the Aberdeen asthma dietary hypothesis.

This article recounts the story of the dietary hypothesis for the rise in asthma and allergies from the first idea to publication of papers showing an association of maternal diet during pregnancy with rise of asthma in the offspring at 2 and 5 years. The nutrient most consistently associated with this endpoint is vitamin E, and it is suggested that reductions in the intake of this vitamin during pregnancy over past decades could explain up to a third of the excess cases of childhood asthma.