Sensitive Choice

  • Council
  • Handbook
  • Sensitive Choice
  • The blue butterfly
    • What is the Sensitive Choice blue butterfly?
    • Contact us
  • Asthma first aid
    • Asthma Action Plans
  • Asthma & allergies
    • Living with Asthma & Allergies
    • Know your triggers
    • Understanding asthma and allergies
    • Creating a healthy home
    • National Asthma Week 2023
    • News
    • FAQs
    • How To Video Library
  • Concerns
    • Air quality
    • Asthma and allergy
    • Building and renovating
    • Cleaning
    • Hay fever
    • Healthy home
    • Healthy living
    • Indoor humidity
    • Weather events
    • All concerns
  • Products & services
    • Air Treatment
    • Babies and children's products and services
    • Bedroom
    • Building and renovating
    • Cleaning
    • Flooring
    • Furniture
    • Health and personal care
    • Indoor environmental control
    • Laundry appliances
    • Vacuum & deep cleaners
    • Water Filtration
    • All products & services
  • Partnerships
    • For business
    • Why join us?
    • How to join
    • Expression of interest
    • Marketing tools
    • Our partners
  • The blue butterfly

    • What is the Sensitive Choice blue butterfly?
    • Contact us
  • Asthma first aid

    • Asthma Action Plans
  • Asthma & allergies

    • Living with Asthma & Allergies
    • Know your triggers
    • Understanding asthma and allergies
    • Creating a healthy home
    • National Asthma Week 2023
    • News
    • FAQs
    • How To Video Library
  • Concerns

    • Air quality
    • Asthma and allergy
    • Building and renovating
    • Cleaning
    • Hay fever
    • Healthy home
    • Healthy living
    • Indoor humidity
    • Weather events
    • All concerns
  • Products & services

    • Air Treatment
    • Babies and children's products and services
    • Bedroom
    • Building and renovating
    • Cleaning
    • Flooring
    • Furniture
    • Health and personal care
    • Indoor environmental control
    • Laundry appliances
    • Vacuum & deep cleaners
    • Water Filtration
    • All products & services
  • Partnerships

    • For business
    • Why join us?
    • How to join
    • Expression of interest
    • Marketing tools
    • Our partners

×

Welcome to the Sensitive Choice
e-news!

We’ll send you a newsletter each month with asthma and allergy tips, plus news about Sensitive Choice approved products and services.

Marketing permissions

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Sensitive Choice:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.

Home / Concerns / Asthma and allergy / Healthy eating for asthma
Healthy eating for asthma

Factsheet

Healthy eating for asthma

Healthy eating habits and lifestyle choices can have a positive impact on people with asthma.

Carrying a few extra kilos can make your asthma harder to manage – the more kilos, the harder it can be. Working towards your ideal bodyweight can help you get fewer symptoms and use less medication.

What you can do

Talk to your doctor before you start any new health or fitness program. Your doctor can check how your asthma is going and give you expert diet and exercise advice.

Eat well to breathe well

Fresh fruit and vegetables are full of antioxidants, which may improve your lung health and help avoid asthma attacks. Aim for a well-balance diet with 5 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruit every day. Eating lots of fish (not fish oil supplements) may help with your asthma too. Eating too much saturated fat may increase your risk of asthma attacks. Limit the amount of saturated fats you eat by limiting fast foods and choosing lean meats.

The milk myth

Despite the common misconception, milk and other dairy foods don’t cause or worsen asthma symptoms. Don’t cut these out of your diet unnecessarily. Milk, cheese and yoghurt can all be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet unless you have proven allergy to cow’s milk.

Lighten the asthma load

Being overweight can make asthma harder to manage. Carrying extra weight puts extra strain on your lungs and might also worsen your asthma.

If you are overweight, losing just 5-10% of your current weight (e.g. 5 or 10 kilograms for a person who weighs 100 kilograms) might really improve your asthma, so you get fewer asthma symptoms and use less medication.

Breathing problems during sleep are common among people who are overweight, and can make asthma harder to manage. If you snore or don’t feel refreshed after a night’s sleep, talk to your doctor.

Enjoy an active lifestyle

Don’t let your asthma stop you being physically active. Choose an activity you enjoy and aim for at least 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity every day or most days.

Consider getting involved in structured exercise: people with asthma who participate in physical training feel better.

Asthma symptoms after exercise are common but treatable. If exercise causes asthma symptoms, tell your doctor so you can find the treatment that works best for you. This could be as simple as taking a few puffs of your reliever before you warm up.

Similar resources

Building and renovating with Daikin
Building and renovating with Heartridge flooring
Pollen and hay fever
Air treatments explained

Stay up to date with our monthly newsletter

  • The Blue Butterfly

    • What is the Sensitive Choice blue butterfly?

    • Contact us

  • Asthma & allergies

    • Living with asthma & allergies

    • Know your triggers

    • Understanding asthma and allergies

    • Creating a healthy home

    • National Asthma Week 2023

    • News

    • FAQs

    • How To Video Library

  • Concerns

    • Air quality

    • Asthma and allergy

    • Building and renovating

    • Cleaning

    • Hay fever

    • Healthy home

    • Healthy living

    • Indoor humidity

    • Weather events

    • All concerns

  • Products & services

    • Air Treatment

    • Babies and children's products and services

    • Bedroom

    • Building and renovating

    • Cleaning

    • Flooring

    • Furniture

    • Health and personal care

    • Indoor environmental control

    • Laundry appliances

    • Vacuum & deep cleaners

    • Water Filtration

    • All products & services

  • Partnerships

    • For business

    • Why join us?

    • How to join

    • Expression of interest

    • Marketing tools

    • Our partners

Sensitive Choice is a program of the National Asthma Council Australia.
National Asthma Council Australia 2023.

Suite 104, Level 1,
153-161 Park Street
South Melbourne VIC 3205

(03) 9929 4333

[email protected]

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Disclaimer

Privacy Policy

Don't delete me. This is used to get the current Tailwind screen.