Seafood is vital if you want an intelligent child but know what to avoid...

"...avoid over-consumption of the most mercury-laden fish-tuna, shark, and swordfish - most other types of seafood are fine for pregnant women and should be consumed liberally."

Eating Seafood While Pregnant Affects Childhood Development
Benefits far outweigh risks
By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.
Nov 19, 2009

"Eating fish while pregnant is helpful for the child.
The U.S. government added fish and shellfish to the list of demonized nutrient-dense foods, citing concerns about mercury.
Many pregnant women, concerned about the effect that mercury in fish might have on the neurological development of their children, now avoid seafood like the plague.

However, findings of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a U.K. study involving about 14,000 women and their children, show that the benefits of eating most types of seafood during pregnancy far outweigh any risks.
The most important finding: Women who eat twelve ounces or less of seafood per week were almost 50 percent more likely to have children with low verbal IQ scores compared to women who exceeded this amount.

At age three, children whose mothers ate less seafood during pregnancy were more likely to have social and communication problems with their peers, and by ages seven and eight they tended to have more behavioral problems and trouble with fine motor skills.
They were also more likely to have lower academic scores.
The ALSPAC is the third in recent years to find few or no adverse effects from consuming most types of seafood during pregnancy.

While it may be wise for pregnant women to avoid over-consumption of the most mercury-laden fish-tuna, shark, and swordfish-most other types of seafood are fine for pregnant women and should be consumed liberally. "

Comments

Submitted by Maysie on January 1, 2010 - 9:07am.

Hi lonewolf, welcome to babble.

Please post a link to the article if you can. Thanks!

Submitted by Boom Boom on January 1, 2010 - 11:42am.

I haven't had any tuna in a long time, but I find it really difficult to give up canned salmon, which I love in salads, sandwiches, or just by itself with a bit of EVOO. I get the occasional salt cod but I'm not a huge fan of it. Our fishermen here mostly go after Snow Crab all summer, beginning in April, and two or three also go after lobster (I can't eat lobster, but I love snow crab). Other species caught locally include clams, mussels, mackerel, and not very often larger fish such as halibut. If asked to name my favourite fish, I'd probably say mackerel, but I didn't have any in 2009 at all.

Submitted by Refuge on January 1, 2010 - 1:19pm.

From the research I have read it is the OMEGA's that are what is important in the fish so I get my share from supplements of flax or ground flax on my cereal. All the good stuff from fish with none of the mercury.

I see a lot of studies that show it is fine to eat fish for pregnant women but a lot of these are funded by companies that produce fish. For my developing little guy (or girl) I will stick with the OMEGA's and away from the mercury.

Submitted by Polunatic2 on January 1, 2010 - 7:09pm.

I'd recommend Taras Grescoe's Bottom Feeder for a look at what fish and seafood to eat and what to avoid.

Submitted by Unionist on January 1, 2010 - 7:24pm.

Maysie wrote:

Hi lonewolf, welcome to babble.

Please post a link to the article if you can. Thanks!

Good call, Maysie. Here's a link to the article. It is NOT from the Washington Post, but if you look at the last paragraph, you can see that it might be an honest mistake - only the info in the last para comes from the Post.

The real Washington Post article is Pregnant? Say Yes to Seafood [6].

Quite a different slant than that suggested in the OP, no?

Submitted by lonewolfbunn on January 1, 2010 - 9:43pm.

Polunatic2 wrote:

I'd recommend Taras Grescoe's Bottom Feeder for a look at what fish and seafood to eat and what to avoid.

Well someone's paying attention. Thank you for finding an alternate source of the article.

You see I found this in a media source that is often speaks out against atrocities committed by a certain Communist government.

I didn't include the link to my source because as I have found out the hard way by posting articles in my own forum about 'Organ Harvesting' that that government has the ability to block anything that may detrimental to their image from search engines.

This was confirmed when a Canadian University website was blocked and was unaccessible by anyone on the internet.

They discovered that the Ch!ne$e government was scanning all web content and blocking websites that may contain anything that may tarnish their image to the public.

Only after a government funded website such as that of the University was blocked by the Ch!ne$e government (due to one student posting articles about atrocities commited against Fal0n G0ng practicioners) was the fact that they have the technology to block any web content from search engines covered by the media.I have discovered this first hand posting in my forum. Generally anything I posted got 400-1000 views within 24 hours. The 0rgan Harve$ting article I posted recieved FIVE views after a week. That has never happened before.I learned that spelling certain words that are scanned such as Ch1ne$e and Ep0ch T!mes with apostrophies, ones and zeros instead of O's helped the situation.However this is not possible when posting links.I know this has nothing to do with the topic at hand but I had to get that explanation out of the way.

Submitted by Unionist on January 1, 2010 - 10:04pm.

Gotcha. And they're after our precious bodily fluids too, if I'm not mistaken.

Submitted by Ken Burch on January 1, 2010 - 10:18pm.

A vegetarian can't give birth to an intelligent child?

Submitted by lonewolfbunn on January 1, 2010 - 10:34pm.

Ken Burch wrote:

A vegetarian can't give birth to an intelligent child?

I sure hope they can. Though I am not a vegetarian I think it is a great thing.

According to 'refuge' the advantages of eating fish can be aquired from plant sources.

"From the research I have read it is the OMEGA's that are what is important in the fish so I get my share from supplements of flax or ground flax on my cereal. All the good stuff from fish with none of the mercury."