What You Should Know About Omega-3 Fatty Acids

This Reuters headline that caught my eye: "When Pregnant Mom Eats Fish, Kids do Better". I immediately remembered something my mother used to tell me when I was a child. She'd say, 'fish is brain food. It will make you smarter'. I was curious. Could she have been right all those years ago? I read the article...

Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, from the U.S. National Institutes of Health who led a study in the U.K. said the fatty acids found in fish is extremely important for fetal brain development. While the US government recommends limiting a pregnant women's seafood intake to 12 ounces per week, the British study shows this amount is not sufficient to protect the developing fetal brain from developmental problems. They found that women who avoid seafood or just eat a small amount are actually harming their unborn babies by depriving them of essential nutrients needed in fetal brain development.

In the British studyncalled the 'Children Of The 90's Project', 9,000 women were tracked for several years. In the children of the women who ate more than the recommended 12 ounces (340 grams) of seafood per week, they were more advanced in developmental tests measuring fine motor, communication, and social skills as toddlers; behaved better at age 7; and got higher verbal IQ scores at age 8, than the other group whose mother's ate less than 12 ounces of seafood per week. In the children whose mothers ate no seafood at all, the differences were shocking. Those children were 48% more likely to have low verbal IQ scores at age 8. For each outcome measure, the lower the intake of seafood during pregnancy, the higher the risk of sub-optimum developmental outcome.