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Pregnant Women, Start Eating More Fish Again!

Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 16, 2007 at 2:32 PM

A study of 9,000 British families has found that the children of women who ate more seafood during pregnancy than the US guideline of 12 ounces a week have significantly more advanced fine-motor, communication and social skills than the children of women who stay within the guidelines or eat no fish at all. "The research suggests that those who avoid fish or do not eat enough of it risk depriving their unborn children of important nutrients that are needed to help brain development. (...) Those children whose mothers had eaten no fish were 28% more likely to have poor communication skills at 18 months, 35% more likely to have poor fine-motor coordination at three-and-a-half, 44% more likely to have poor social behaviour at seven, and 48% more likely to have a relatively low verbal IQ at the age of eight, compared with the children of women who had eaten more fish than advised by the US guidelines."

If you're pregnant, avoid fish at the top of the food chain like sharks, tuna and swordfish as they're more likely to contain pollutants; if you don't like fish or can't have fresh fish regularly, omega-3 supplements are an alternative. (Raw shellfish is listed as a no-no but not raw fish altogether; some but not all Japanese doctors tell women to avoid sushi during pregnancy, but recommend they keep eating fish.)

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