Cleverer Kids When Moms Eat Fish During Pregnancy
February 16th, 2007 by Anne
Publication: playfuls.com
Date: February 16, 2007
Eating fish during your pregnancy could make your child cleverer, says a study. Now that’s food for thought!
A British study released on Thursday claims that including fish and seafood in your diet during pregnancy is far from risky – it is in fact recommended. Fish contain important nutrients that have a beneficial effect on the developing brain of the fetus.
The researchers came to their conclusions by studying almost 9,000 British families that took part in the Children of the 90s project at the University of Bristol.
Mothers who avoid fish while pregnant or who eat very little of it supposedly affect their baby’s brain’s development, by depriving it of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish, essential for development of the nervous system.
This contradicts previous warnings by health experts which advised pregnant women to limit the amount of fish they consume because of potentially dangerous pollutants in seafood.
In 2004 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and FDA jointly advised pregnant and nursing women against eating more than 12 ounces (340 grams) of seafood a week because of concerns about levels of toxic mercury in fish.
There was also the recommendation to avoid shark, marlin and oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring and trout (which happen to contain the most omega 3 fatty acids).
Lead researcher Joseph Hibbeln, of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the Bristol scientists, including Professor Jean Golding, compared the amount of fish eaten by pregnant mothers with the development of their children up to the age of eight and concluded that “women had low levels of seafood consumption, the outcome is exactly the opposite of what was assumed by the United States advisory.”
The Bristol study, published in the Lancet, has some opposing conclusions: women should eat at least 12 ounces of fish and seafood a week, in order to aid their baby’s cerebral development. They should also concentrate on consuming oily fish.
Professor Jean Golding from Bristol University said: “Eating fish, particularly oily fish, is important for a child’s development in the womb but the message has been overshadowed by warnings about possible risks. However, there is no evidence that small amounts of mercury have an adverse effect on the brain.”
“If there was an adverse effect then we would have seen it in our study, rather than the big benefits gained from fish consumption in pregnancy.”
The participants were pregnant women living in Bristol, with an expected delivery date between April 1991 and December 1992, as well as their partners. They completed 3-4 questionnaires annually, while the children were examined from age seven until they were eight.
Mothers who ate more than 12 ounces of seafood a week had children who were more advanced in development tests measuring motor, communication and social skills, were better behaved, and had better verbal IQ scores.
The children whose mothers had eaten little or no fish were 28 per cent more likely to have poor communication skills at 18 months and 35 per cent more likely to have poor coordination as toddlers. The risk of bad behavior and low verbal IQ at the age of eight was almost 50 per cent higher in children whose mothers avoided fish.
Jean Golding commented: “It can be very confusing. [When limits are set] the assumption is sometimes made that the less you eat the better. In the US particularly some women stopped eating fish altogether.”
She said the only fish that women should avoid were swordfish, shark and fresh tuna, as these could contain greater quantities of pollutants. “These fish are at the top of the food chain, so they have been eating other fish and storing pollutants throughout their life.
She added that children with mothers who during pregnancy had cut out fish were “less likely to fulfill their potential in terms of behavior and skills.” Women who wish to avoid fish completely during pregnancy are advised to take omega-3 supplements as an alternative.
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