Re: Breaking fish advice during pregnancy may benefit babies

On Feb 18, 3:40 pm, "Day Brown" <daybr...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 18, 10:02 am, "Marc Verhaegen" <fa204...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Breaking fish advice during pregnancy may benefit babies
Roxanne Khamsi 16.2.07 NewScientist.com news service
The Lancet 369:578http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11193-breaking-fish-advice-duri...
Women who follow government guidelines and eat no more than three portions
of fish a week during pregnancy increase the risk of their children
developing poor verbal and social skills, a new study suggests. Some experts
say the results of the study mean health agencies such as the US FDA should
reconsider the current advice on fish consumption for moms-to-be.
Joseph Hibbeln of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland,
US, and his colleagues surveyed nearly 12,000 women about their seafood
consumption in late pregnancy. After giving birth, the mother regularly
completed questionnaires about their children's developmental progress. And
researchers assessed the youngsters' IQ at age eight.
After controlling for confounding factors such as socioeconomic status, the
scientists found that children whose mothers ate the least amount of seafood
during pregnancy showed the worst performance on tests of social development
and verbal IQ.
Youngsters born to women who ate no seafood during pregnancy had a 50%
increased chance of falling into the lowest quarter of verbal performance,
compared with youngsters whose mothers had consumed more than the
recommended 340-gramme weekly limit. Those whose mothers had eaten some
fish - but not more than the recommended 340 g - had a 10% increased chance.
In 2004 the US Environmental Protection Agency and FDA jointly advised
pregnant and nursing women against eating more than 340 g of seafood because
of concerns about levels of toxic mercury in fish. Researchers recently
found evidence suggesting that the mercury in fish might increase the risk
of premature birth.
But based on the new findings of his study, Hibbeln concludes that only when
women eat more than the recommended amount of fish during pregnancy do
"their children do the best".
He says the omega-3 fatty acids in fish appear to promote brain growth
during fetal development.
Some experts now believe that the 340 g limit should be revised. Government
agencies "should re-examine the advisory in light of the new findings", says
neurologist Gary Myers, at the University of Rochester Medical Center, New
York, US. He says women should be encouraged to eat more fish during
pregnancy.
And Myers suggests the government should avoid complicated guidelines
telling women to avoid only certain fish that typically contain higher
levels of mercury, such as swordfish. "Sometimes people simply get confused
by all the things they are told and when that happens they simply give up on
eating fish."

I've posted several times on the high innovation levels of the Great
Lake States, from NY to MN, from the 19th & 20th century technology
centers running from Rochester NY ( which had Kodak, IBM, Bausche &
Lomb, & Xerox) to Rochester MN (Mayo Clinic) where freshwater fish
were cheap & abundant, or even free from all the hobby fishermen...
compared to the relative lack of innovation in the South which prefers
pork & beef.

Likewise we have the effect of the high quality of the protein in Oats
which Northern kids ate for breakfast, compared to the low quality of
the protein in corn grits.

Oysters in east coast (New York area) harvested for thousands of
years, salmon of east coast, catfish down south. A whole lot of corn
grows in the north now.

Micro-nutrients and unfortunately Mercury, PCBs, DDT, etc. etc. build
up in molluscs and long lived top predator fish, and cinguetela (sp)
and other natural toxins also accumulate in old big fish.

Pollution is the problem.
DD

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