Pregnant Women Absolutely Should Be Eating Fish

If you're utterly confused about whether you should be eating seafood at all during your pregnancy, join the crowd. When the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency released their original joint advisory on seafood and pregnancy in 2004, it was a great public service and helped steer women away from the major food sources of harmful methyl mercury: shark, swordfish, tilefish, and king mackerel. Unfortunately, the media hysteria that followed caused many women to misinterpret the advice and stop eating seafood altogether. Many of my pregnant (and about-to-be-pregnant) friends told me they had sworn off seafood because it was just too hard to keep track of what was on the okay list and what wasn't. I'm hoping this article will help clear up the confusion and help you make an easy choice the next time you're at a restaurant or at the seafood counter in the grocery store.

My mother always told me that fish was "brain food," and to my preteen mind, that sounded pretty gross. But just as she was about so many other things, Mom was actually right. The fatty acids in seafood, docosahexanoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (both forms of omega-3), have been shown to play a key role in the development of a baby's brain. The Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency recommend that pregnant women eat up to 12 ounces of low-mercury fish and shellfish a week. So fish is good for pregnant women, right?

Yes, and no.

According to Dr. Steve Otwell, a professor at the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Florida,"Even the small risk that can come from a lifetime of exposure to mercury is outweighed by the immediate and essential benefits." Yes, certain fish should be avoided, but the experts all agree that the benefits of seafood to your baby greatly outweigh the risk. The National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, a group made up of professors of obstetrics and PhDs in nutrition, announced in October 2007 that women who want to become pregnant, pregnant women, and women who are breast-feeding should eat no less than 12 ounces of seafood a week.

So that flatly goes up against the FDA warnings to eat no more than 12 ounces. They also emphasized that selenium-a mineral naturally occurring in ocean fish-appears to protect against toxicity from trace amounts of mercury.

The science continues to build a case for ladies with a bun to sidle up to the seafood counter. A 2007 paper published in the Lancet by Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln found that women with a low seafood intake (less than 12 ounces a week) had children who scored lower on tests for fine motor, communication, and social development skills from ages six months to eight years. He also found that when women ate more than the government-recommended 12 ounces a week, their children's neurodevelopment and verbal IQ scores benefited. The study was performed in the United Kingdom, which has higher methyl mercury-exposure levels than the United States does. So once again the researchers concluded that the benefits of that filet o' fish or salmon salad are greater than skipping them.

What's so fantastic about fish? DHA is the mack daddy for your baby's brain and eye development. DHA is an omega-3 polyunsaturated fat that's an essential fatty acid, which means our bodies don't make it and we need to get it from the food we eat. It's found mainly in fatty cold-water fish, like salmon, herring, tuna, trout, mackerel (typically Atlantic mackerel, not king mackerel, which is on the don't-eat list), and oysters. It's also found in organ meats (such as liver) and breast milk. DHA is also now being added to everything from orange juice, yogurt, and soy milk (good), to chocolates (a little too fishy tasting).

DHA plays a key role in the development of a growing fetus' brain and neurological system. Your baby is dependent on you to supply her with enough DHA. That means that if you don't get an adequate amount for both of you, your stores can become depleted, especially while you're breast-feeding. Unfortunately, most pregnant and breast-feeding women only get about 50 mg a day of DHA. Make sure to get 200 mg a day while you're pregnant and also throughout breast-feeding.

Here are some of the top seafood sources of omega-3 (per 3-ounce serving):

Anchovies 2,055 mg

Atlantic salmon, farmed 1,800 mg

Salmon, wild coho 900 mg

Sardines 982 mg

Chunk light tuna 200 mg

Catfish, farmed 200 mg

Atlantic cod 100 mg

Pollock 500 mg

Scallops 300 mg

Crab 400 mg

Shrimp 300 mg

Tilapia 135 mg

Kona kampachi (also called hamachi): 1740 mg

Another benefit of omega-3 in both the DHA and EPA forms is that it helps protect against mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar disorder. Low levels of DHA in breast milk and low seafood consumption levels have been linked to postpartum depression, which affects 10 to 15 percent of mothers. Taking a combination of DHA and EPA has been shown in some studies to significantly improve the symptoms of postpartum depression.

To top it all off, seafood is also great for your heart. In 2006, the American Heart Association released a statement encouraging Americans to eat two servings a week of fish-preferably the fatty kind, like salmon and herring.

Need more reasons to eat fish? A recent study found that the children of mothers who ate fish during pregnancy had a lower risk of eczema. A Harvard study by Emily Oken found that moms who ate the most fish had kids who performed better on cognitive tests at age three, while moms with higher mercury levels had kids with poorer test scores. Basically, this means you need to maximize your fish intake while minimizing your mercury exposure. So which fish are the better catch? Seafood with low or no detectable levels of mercury include the following:

Catfish

Pollock

Shrimp

Salmon

Tilapia

Kona kampachi

Notes:

"Mothers again urged to eat fish: Advisory at odds with FDA stance," October 4, 2007. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/03/AR2007100301278.html.

Hibbeln JR. "Maternal seafood consumption in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood (ALSPAC study): and observational cohort study." The Lancet 2007; 369: 578-85.

Mean and Percentiles for Usual Daily Intake of n-3 Docosahexaenoic Acid (22:6) (g), United States, CSFII (1994-1996, 1998).

Romieu I et al. "Maternal fish intake during pregnancy and atopy and asthma in infancy." Clinical and Experimental Allergy 2007; 37:518-525.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish and Shellfish," updated February 2006.. Also known as hamachi or Hawaiian yellowtail, this farmed fish from Hawaii is sweet and meaty. It's been showing up on menus at a lot of top restaurants. It has undetectable levels of contaminants and is rich in omega-3.. A mild, sweet-fleshed fish, tilapia is great in fish tacos or pan-seared and served with vegetables.. Next to anchovies, salmon is the richest source of omega-3.. Probably because it's so easy to prepare, shrimp has now surpassed tuna as the most popular seafood in America. Go for shrimp bearing a "Wild American" seal-recently, shrimp imported from China and Vietnam were found to be contaminated with antibiotics. At restaurants, ask your server where the shrimp were caught.. It's the white fish used to make "imitation crab" and fish fillets at fast-food joints.. Although, unless you were raised on it, you're probably not going to be eating a heck of a lot of this one.