People with asthma may want to consider eliminating burgers, fries and other high-fat foods from their diets. A new study has found that a meal high in fat can increase airway inflammation and may inhibit the response to a common asthma reliever medication.

Researchers at Australia’s University of Newcastle recruited 40 asthmatic subjects who were randomized to receive either a high-fat, high-calorie "food challenge" or a low-fat, low-calorie meal. Respiratory "sputum" samples were taken before they ate the meals and four hours after, and were analyzed for inflammatory markers.

They found those who consumed the high-fat meal had increased airway inflammation and decreased response to the bronchodilator medication albuterol.

"This is the first study to show that a high fat meal increases airway inflammation, so this is a very important finding," said the study’s lead author Lisa Wood, Ph.D. "The observation that a high fat meal changes the asthmatic response to albuterol was unexpected as we hadn’t considered the possibility that this would occur."

Asthma prevalence has increased dramatically in westernized countries in recent decades, suggesting that environmental factors such as dietary intake may play a role in the onset and development of the disease. Westernized diets are known to be relatively higher in fat than more traditional diets.

Researchers say further research on the relationship between diet and asthma is needed.