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Background: A farming environment confers strong protection against allergy development. We have previously shown that farming mothers consume more full-fat dairy than control mothers, who instead consume more low-fat dairy, margarine, and oils; margarine and oil intake was associated with increased risk of allergy development in their children. Objectives: The aims of this study were to investigate the differences in diet between children in farming and control families at 1 year of age, to investigate the relation between the diets of the mothers and their children, and to relate the children's diet to allergy development. Design: The diet of 1-year-old children from dairy farming families (n=28) and from control families in the same rural area (n=37) was assessed by 24-h dietary recalls, followed by 24-h food diaries. Allergy was diagnosed by pediatricians at 3 years of age using strict predefined criteria. Results: Farm children had a higher intake of farm milk, whole cream, cholesterol, saturated fat, and fat in total and tended to eat more butter, while controls consumed more carbohydrates and poultry and tended to eat more margarine. Farm children also had higher intakes of homemade porridge/gruel, oily fish, and iodine. The intake of butter and whole milk in children and mothers correlated significantly in farm families but not in controls. A weak negative association was found between seafood intake and allergy development, while allergy was positively associated with the intake of pork as well as zinc in the control group; these intakes also correlated with each other. Conclusions: Consistent with mothers in farming families, the children consumed more full-fat dairy and saturated fat than did controls, but this could not be linked to the low risk of allergy in the farming group. Seafood intake might protect against allergy development, in accordance with earlier findings.

Background: The Swedish board for health and social welfare (SoS) has presented four questions on dietary habits as indicators of adherence to dietary recommendations. However, these questions have not been evaluated. Objective: To evaluate if four questions on dietary habits correlate with dietary intake assessed by food records. Design: A total of 279 medical and nursing students, 170 women and 109 men, completed four questions on usual consumption frequency of vegetables, fruits, fish, and sweets. Depending on scoring from 0 to 12 points, subjects were classified as having low (0–4 points), average (5–8 points), or high (9–12 points) adherence to dietary recommendations as proposed by SoS. Nutrient intake was calculated from 3-day food records. Mean dietary intake, expressed per 10 MJ of fibre, ascorbic acid, folate, vitamin D, sucrose, fish, and fruits and vegetables, was analysed for each group and differences assessed by ANOVA. Results: Energy intake was 11.8±3.0 MJ in male and 8.5±2.2 MJ in female students. Most students, 64%, were classified as average adherers to dietary recommendations, whereas only 6% were classified as low and 30% as high. Dietary intake of fibre, ascorbic acid, and folate was significantly higher in the high adherence group compared to both the other groups (p