At the moment, asthma sufferers rarely see the professionals in dietitian jobs for treatment. The findings of a piece of research could change this though.

Research from scientists at the University of Newcastle and in Australia have found that meals that are high in fat can make asthma worse.

The study looked at how a group of people with asthma who were obese and a group of sufferers who were of normal weight reacted to a high-fat meal consisting of burgers and fried potatoes. The meal contained 1,000 calories and 60g of fat. A control group of 16 asthma sufferers of normal weight were given a low fat meal of yogurt (200kcal, 3g fat).

Researchers involved in the study found that those who consumed the high-fat meal had a higher level of inflammation in their airways, as well as receiving less benefit from the standard asthma treatment of albuterol than those who ate the low fat yogurt. There was no difference between the reaction of obese and non-obese people in their response to the high-fat meal.

Dr Lisa Wood, research fellow and lecturer in Biomedical sciences and Pharmacy at the Department of Hunter Medical Research Institute led the study.

She says that "this is the first study to show that a high fat meal increases airway inflammation...the observation that a high fat meal changes the asthmatic response to albuterol was unexpected as we hadn't considered the possibility this would occur."

Dr Elain Vickers of the charity group Asthma UK said that the study added "yet more weight" to advice to "eat a healthy, balanced diet and take regular exercise."

"This research suggests that in addition to long-term detrimental effects on our heart and other organs, a high fat diet could be adding to severity of asthma symptoms as well as making asthma treatments less effective."