Following a healthy diet during pregnancy is crucial for a baby's healthy growth. Eating fish, rich with nutrients and vitamins, helps both the mother and the baby. But the scare about the high level of mercury levels, women are generally advised to avoid all kinds of fish during pregnancy.
However, according to a team of researchers from the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii (JABSOM), pregnant women should not fully avoid fish during pregnancy. The researchers do recommend women to avoid swordfish, king mackerel, shark, pilot whale and tilefish after becoming pregnant.
Fish and shell fish contain mercury. To avoid exposure to the negative effects of mercury, health experts from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggest women planning pregnancy, already pregnant, nursing mothers and young children to fully avoid fish or shellfish like Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel, or Tilefish in their diets or eat those with lower in mercury. According to them, only two average meals containing fish or shell fish, lower in mercury should be taken.
To analyze the risks, investigators included 100 pregnant women. Details about the participants' fish eating habits were noted down and their placentas were analyzed for mercury levels.
Researchers found the benefits of selenium in fish to be highly beneficial both for maternal and the baby's health and eliminating the risks posed by mercury. It has been proved that the selenium protects against toxic effects of mercury.
"Our natural ocean fish here have very high levels of selenium," John Kaneko of the Hawaii Seafood Council told Hawaii News Now.
"If you stick to fish, most of the fish that we eat, then the selenium that's in that fish de-toxifies the mercury and makes it so our bodies can't absorb it," Dr. Marla Berry, the chair of the Cellular and Molecular Biology Department at JABSOM, added.
On the other hand, eating fish is crucial to ensure a healthy development of the nervous system and previous studies have shown children of women following a diet rich with fish having higher IQ's compared to those avoiding fish during pregnancy.
