The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization on Wednesday jointly published a report that says governments worldwide need to do a better job emphasizing the health benefits of eating seafood, particularly the benefits to the heart and brain.
Fueled by a need to close the gap between public misperceptions about eating fish and the actual science behind it, the report is a first of its kind in that it provides a framework for governments on how to provide seafood consumption advice.
The way the advice is communicated will play a big role in determining its influence on seafood consumption behaviors, according to the National Fisheries Institute, which called the report a “crucial turning point.”
“It’s really important. It’s going to [have] a megaphone effect,” Jennifer McGuire, a registered dietician with NFI, told SeafoodSource. “What governments should emphasize is if you don’t eat fish here are the [health] risks that you’re going to face.”
To more effectively communicate with the public, the report urges governments to emphasize the health risks associated with a fish-free diet, such as coronary heart disease, and to warn women about the risks of avoiding seafood during pregnancy.
The timing of the report is “impeccable,” said McGuire, as federal nutrition experts prepare to update the United States’ dietary guidelines this year; the dietary guidelines are jointly issued by the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture every five years. Largely overlooked in the past, the importance of eating seafood is expected to be addressed, she added.
Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration is under pressure to update its six-year-old consumer advisory about methylmercury in seafood, said McGuire.
Authored by 17 nutrition and toxicology experts at a meeting in Rome in January, the FAO-WHO report concluded that, for the general public, eating seafood reduces the risk of death from heart disease. For women of childbearing age, eating fish during pregnancy and breastfeeding lowers the risk of poor brain development in babies.
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