MEDIA RELEASE -- Sunday 11 March 2007
More fish for mums, more “brain food” for babies
AN Australian organisation promoting the health benefits of seafood is urging doctors here -- and mums-to-be -- to examine results of internat-ional research suggesting eating more fish will boost babies’ brain power.
The results of work by an international research team led by Dr Joseph Hibbeln from the US Federal Government’s National Institutes of Health, with health researchers from the University of Illinois in Chicago and the University of Bristol in the UK, suggested women should eat more than the recommended levels of fish while pregnant.
Summarising their results in The Lancet, the team said: “Maternal seafood consumption of less than 340 grams per week in pregnancy did not protect children from adverse outcomes. Rather, we recorded beneficial effects on child development with maternal seafood intakes of more than 340g per week, suggesting advice to limit seafood consumption could actually be detrimental.
“These results show risks from the loss of nutrients were greater than risks of harm from exposure to trace contaminants in 340 grams of seafood weekly.”
Their report said that seafood is the main food source of Omega-3 fatty acids, essential for optimum neural development. However, in 2004, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advised women who were pregnant or might become pregnant to limit seafood intake during pregnancy to 340 grams a week (less than three portions) to avoid exposure to trace amounts of neurotoxins, especially methylmercury.
Poor outcomes associated with insufficient intakes of Omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy include intrauterine growth retardation, delayed or sub-optimum depth perception, adverse neurodevelopmental measures, residual deficits in fine motor skills, speed of information processing in infants, and irreversible deficits in serotonin and dopamine release, according to Dr Hibbeln and his colleagues.
To assess the possible benefits and hazards to a child's development of different levels of maternal seafood intake during pregnancy, they analysed information from 11,875 pregnant women living in Bristol, England, who completed a food frequency questionnaire at 32 weeks' gestation. Their expected delivery date was between April 1, 1991 and December 31, 1992.
They compared developmental, behavioral and cognitive outcomes of the children from age six months to eight years whose mothers consumed no seafood, some seafood (up to 340g per week), and more than 340g per week.
After adjustment, maternal seafood intake during pregnancy of less than 340g per week was associated with an increased risk at age eight years of the child being in the lowest one-quarter for verbal IQ compared with mothers who consumed more than 340g per week. At seven years, low maternal seafood intake was also associated with an increased risk of suboptimum outcomes for social behaviour for no seafood consumption versus more than 340g per week.
Overall, the investigators said, the higher the maternal seafood intake, the less likely the infant was to have a poor score. At ages up to 3.5 years, scores were also lower for fine-motor skills, communication, and social development.
Maternal seafood consumption reached an average of 235 grams a week, resulting in estimated weekly intakes of zero to 15.6 grams -- and an average intake of 1.06 grams -- of Omega-3 fatty acids a week. In total, 12% of the women ate no fish during pregnancy, 65% ate up to 340g per week, and 23% ate more than 340g.
The relation between maternal seafood intake and a child's communication skills at ages six and 18 months and verbal IQ are the opposite of those anticipated by the US FDA and EPA bulletins, Dr Hibbeln and colleagues said.
The team said: "We recorded no evidence to lend support to the warnings of the US advisory that pregnant women should limit their seafood consumption." By contrast, they noted that children of mothers who ate small amounts of seafood (less than 340g a week) were more likely to have compromised neurodevelopment than the children of mothers who ate more seafood than the recommended amounts.
In an accompanying comment, Dr Gary Myers and Dr Philip Davidson of the University of Rochester, New York, wrote that, although methylmercury can be neurotoxic, the amount of exposure that constitutes a toxic dose is unknown.
The only confirmed cases of prenatal human poisoning came from Japan in the 1950s and 1960s after massive industrial pollution of nearby waters, they said. Therefore, the findings of this study should be of great interest to government authorities pondering the relative risks and benefits of fish consumption.
A US survey showed that two-thirds of Americans believe 1,000 to 100,000 US children are poisoned by mercury from eating fish every year. In fact, Drs. Myers and Davidson said that there has never been even one child with prenatal mercury poisoning from consuming fish documented outside Japan.
They questioned whether the Government's overall advice to restrict consumption of specific fish that accumulate higher mercury concentrations is "in the public's best interest."
A consumer survey suggested that many Americans presented with this advice
reduced their intake of all fish, a reduction which might in fact result in more harm than good, they wrote. In this circumstance, in which fish contain both nutrients and toxins that are an essential part of many people's diet, people are probably best served "by advisories that follow science and that are conservative in the absence of compelling scientific evidence of harm".
Mr Palmer said that the Australian Government’s food standards agency, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), recommended pregnant women eat fish two to three times a week and select a variety of fish species over time.
“This latest international research suggests that babies would benefit by their mothers eating more than the recommended amount of seafood each week,” Mr Palmer said. “With one serve of fish regarded as 150 grams, two to three serves a week would be 300 to 450g a week. Based on those figures, eating fish twice a week would not produce the best possible outcome for their baby.
“This study indicates that doctors, pregnant women, regulatory agencies and advisory bodies should re-examine recommendations about seafood. This research says simply that more is better. Babies might be deprived of beneficial nutrients by limiting fish consumption in pregnant women to just two or three serves a week.
“In fact, this research says that limiting seafood to that level could actually be causing babies some harm or at least limiting their potential. The results of this work should be examined closely by the medical fraternity here, and Seafood Services Australia (SSA) will certainly be encouraging this to happen.”
Mr Palmer said SSA was jointly funded by the Australian Government and the seafood industry. Its mission was to be a catalyst for sustainable development of the seafood industry, and one of its roles was to promote the health benefits of seafood.
Note: FSANZ recommends pregnant women should limit consumption of four groups of fish because their mercury levels tended to be higher than average: billfish (such as broadbill swordfish and marlin), shark (also called flake), orange roughy and catfish. More information can be found on FSANZ’s website www.foodstandards.gov.au
For further information on the health benefits of seafood, go to the Seafood Services Australia website: www.seafood.net.au
Further details of the research report is available on The Lancet site: www.thelancet.com
Hibbeln, JR, et al "Maternal seafood consumption in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcome in childhood (ALSPAC study): an observational cohort study", The Lancet 2007; 369: 578-585.
Myers, GJ, Davidson PW "Maternal fish consumption benefits children's development", The Lancet 2007; 369: 537-539.
Issued: Fri Jun 22 19:56:16 EST
Reference-id: SSANEWS0174
News archive: For more news stories visit the SSA News Archive
Seafood Services Australia is a not for profit company supported by the Australian seafood industry and the Australian Government through funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
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