For years, pregnant
and nursing women have been warned to limit the amount of fish they eat,
because many marine species may contain high levels of mercury, which endangers
newborns and fetuses.
Yesterday, however,
a children’s health group challenged the conventional wisdom, advising
pregnant women and nursing mothers to eat more fish so as to ensure optimal
brain development in their babies.
What’s going
on here? Currently, the Food and Drug Administration advises pregnant women
to limit their weekly seafood consumption to no more than 12 ounces, or
about two servings, per week. The newest recommendation comes from the
National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, a nonprofit group that
focuses on childhood health issues. That group’s scientific advisors say
that pregnant women and nursing mothers should eat at least 12 ounces of
fish per week.
Although both
recommendations acknowledge that pregnant women can safely eat about two
servings a week, fears of mercury contamination in seafood have prompted
many pregnant women to forgo fish entirely. And here’s the conundrum: an
increasing number of studies indicate that omega-3 fatty acids, found mostly
in fish, are essential to brain development in fetuses and newborns.
Earlier this
year, a report in The Lancet, a medical journal, concluded that women who
had eaten more than 12 ounces of fish per week during pregnancy produced
better developed, more intelligent children. “Advice that limits seafood
consumption might reduce the intake of nutrients necessary for optimum
neurological development,” wrote scientists from the National Institutes
of Health and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“The real problem
here are the women who are just liminating fish from their diet,”
said Judy Meehan, executive director of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy
Babies Coalition. “Eating 12 ounces is a very safe, smart move, and nobody
is disputing that.'’
While none of
the research cited yesterday in the coalition’s recommendations has been
funded by the fish industry, the coalition is using a grant from the National
Fisheries Institute, a seafood industry group, to fund its educational
campaign, according to Ms. Meehan.
For women who
want the health benefits but worry about mercury and other toxins, the
wisest course is to choose fish with the lowest levels of mercury. A recent
report in The Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that
the health benefits are likely greatest from such oily fish as salmon,
herring and sardines — which are all generally low in mercury anyway.
Among the fish
to avoid are shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish, all of which
may contain high levels of mercury.
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Copyright
2007 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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