Seafood News Food Safety & Health

Should pregnant women up fish consumption?

World Headlines China’s seafood industry looks... BioMar feed plant first to be ASC... SFP: Near 50-50 split on... Dongwon to build USD 34m tuna... Copper River sockeye back on track... Auction to determine future of... Do the right thing More than 100 plants now IFFO... Geveran, Leroy increase Marine... US CVDs ‘unlikely to hit’ India... Whole Foods won't carry Ross Sea... NZ hoki stock ‘fully recovered’ Seafood Nutrition Partnership gets... Land-based halibut farm starts CAD...

By SeafoodSource staff
09 October, 2012 - Pregnant women are told to limit how much fish they eat because many fish are tainted by mercury, which may harm a baby’s brain.

But a new study suggests that advice may be flawed.

The study found that children born to women who ate more than two servings of fish a week during pregnancy -- more than federal guidelines recommend -- were about half as likely as kids born to women who ate less fish to have trouble with attention and hyperactivity at school.

The study can’t prove more fish was the only reason kids could function better at school. But fish are rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for healthy brain development.

“We saw dramatic protection against these behaviors,” says researcher Sharon K. Sagiv, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor of environmental health at Boston University.

“This is only one study. More studies should look at this. But if indeed eating more fish does seem to be protective across different studies, that’s an important public health message,” Sagiv says.

But the good news about fish comes with a big catch.

Click here to read the full story from Reuters >

| Printer Friendly Version | Back to home »