A study published recently in the Journal of Nutrition adds to the growing scientific evidence that when expecting mothers eat fish often, they are giving their future children a boost in brain development even though they are exposing their children to the neurotoxin, methyl mercury, present in fish.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises pregnant woman to eat only two meals of fish a week and to avoid most large fish to reduce the exposure of their babies’ developing brains to mercury. However, a recent joint report from the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recommended nations actually emphasize the benefits of eating fish for pregnant women and nursing mothers and the potential risks of not consuming fish to brain development.
These messages are confusing for consumers, which is why researchers at the University of Rochester, the University of Ulster, and in the Republic of Seychelles are trying to sort out what happens to children’s development when their mothers eat fish while pregnant. The study, which was published in November, included 225 mothers and their children, from whom researchers collected detailed information about the nutritional status of the mothers and completed almost a dozen standard assessments on language and intelligence of the children over several years.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: University of Rochester Medical Center
