FDA to pregnant women: eat more fish, not less

by Brian White (Subscribe to Brian White's posts)
Oct 7th 2007 1:39PM

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

instead of holding back on eating fish and taking fish oil supplements, pregnant women should actually eat more fish in order to get those healthy oils in their system, according to a new recommendation from a coalition of nutrition experts and groups this past week.

Several federal agencies joined the coalition's suggestion that came to challenge government warnings about fish consumption by pregnant women due to mercury contamination in most volume-processed fish.

While that may be true (to a point), the health benefits of eating about 12 ounces of fish per week outweigh possible exposure to small amounts of mercury. A report from 2004 put out by the FDA and EPA is being criticized in the process here as well.

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melissa 10-08-2007 @ 10:28AM

It is irresponsible to urge pregnant mothers to eat more fish than the FDA recommends without any advice to avoid high mercury fish. Decades of scientific research on the toxicity of methylmercury suggest that it harms healthy fetal development. According to www.Seafood.com, the National Fisheries Institute partially funded this latest campaign to urge expectant women to consume more fish and seafood

In fact, a few recent studies suggest that the benefits of fish consumption during pregnancy, such as improving infant gestation length and neurodevelopment, may be erased when the mother’s mercury levels are high.

Women of childbearing age still need to select their fish wisely. The FDA advice should be posted at fish counters to help end confusion. Here’s the website to an organization that is trying to get grocery stores to post this important advice.