Experts Recommend Eat Fish While Pregnant

Pregnant and breast-feeding women should eat at least 340 grams of fish and
other seafood a week because the benefits for infant brain development
outweigh any worries about mercury contamination, a group of experts said.
The recommendations contradict warnings that these women should consume no
more than 340 grams of fish and other seafood weekly due to concerns that
mercury -- which can harm the nervous system of fetuses -- might exist in
trace amounts in this food.
But the group of 14 obstetricians and nutritionists said the threat of
mercury poisoning remains only theoretical, while the warnings have scared
many pregnant women into not eating fish at all, robbing them and their
babies of vital nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, known to help brain
development.
The nutrients in fish and seafood are important for brain and motor skill
development in children and can help prevent postpartum depression in
mothers, the experts said.

No Case of Fetal Mercury Toxicity
The coalition said it received $60,000 from a seafood industry trade group,
but the experts defended the independence of their work.
"There has been no case of fetal mercury toxicity due to fish consumption
reported," said one of the experts, Dr. Ashley Roman, a professor of
obstetrics and Gynecology.
The group urged that women who want to become pregnant, are pregnant or are
breast-feeding should eat a minimum of 340 grams per week of fish like
salmon, tuna, sardines and mackerel and seafood like shrimp, lobster and
clams.
That amounts to about two to three servings a week. It did not state a
recommended upper limit for consumption.
"There are some fish that have been shown to be higher in mercury and in
other important trace elements such as shark and swordfish," Roman said.
"Those might be sources of fish women still might want to stay away from.
But the vast majority of fish out there present in the diet, those are
generally very healthy fishes."
"We're not saying that women should eat 21 meals a week of fish. That's not
the message here," added nutritionist Thomas Brenna, another member of the
group.
The experts cited a study published in the Lancet medical journal finding
that children whose mothers ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant
were smarter and had better developmental skills than those whose mothers
ate less or none.
It looked at children of 8,000 British women to see how children fared if
their mothers ate more than 340 grams a week.
The Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency issued
advisories telling women who were pregnant, breast-feeding or trying to
become pregnant, as well as young children, to eat no more than 340 grams
weekly of some types of fish due to mercury concerns.
Estimates on the dangers posed by mercury come from people exposed in
chemical spills. No major studies have shown that mercury from food or
vaccines has caused brain damage to mothers or children.
"While it's recognized that fish is an important source of protein,
especially for pregnant women, this new emphasis on eating more than 12
ounces of fish per week, without mention of the need to avoid
mercury-contaminated fish, appears to throw the baby out with the bath
water," Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project advocacy
group that believes mercury exposure has damaged children, said in a
statement. [RT]