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Seafood Improves Brain of Unborn Baby
Eating plenty of seafood during pregnancy boosts your child’s brain development, according to new research.
Seafood is the primary source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for optimum foetal brain development. However, women are often advised to limit their seafood intake during pregnancy to avoid foetal exposure to trace contaminants of neurotoxins.
An article published in this week's issue of The Lancet found, however, that higher maternal seafood consumption during pregnancy results in children showing better neurological function than children whose mothers eat low amounts or no seafood during pregnancy.
The study found that maternal seafood intake during pregnancy of less than 340g (about three portions) per week increased the risk of their children having a low verbal IQ, compared with mothers who consumed more than 340 g per week. Furthermore, low maternal seafood intake was associated with increased risk of below average social behaviour, fine motor skills, communication, and social development scores. For each outcome measure, the lower the intake of seafood during pregnancy, the higher the risk of suboptimum development.
"We recorded no evidence to lend support to warnings that pregnant women should limit their seafood consumption,” concluded the authors, headed by Joseph Hibbeln of the US National Institutes of Health. “In contrast, we noted that children of mothers who ate small amounts of seafood were more likely to have suboptimum neurodevelopmental outcomes than children of mothers who ate more seafood than the recommended amounts."
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