Study counters seafood advice

MUNICH -- Pregnant women who eat fish more than three times a week reduce the risk of having children with low IQ test scores, according to a study that counters US government advice to limit seafood intake .

The US Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency suggested in 2004 that mothers-to-be eat less than 340 grams, or three portions, of fish a week.

A comparison of women who ate more and those who ate less showed "no evidence to lend support to the warnings," the authors, led by researcher Joseph Hibbeln of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., said in the Lancet medical journal .

Consuming less fish was linked to a higher risk of having a child who scored in the lowest quarter in verbal IQ tests, the researchers said. It was also linked to lower scores on prosocial behavior, motor, communication, and social development skills, the study said.

The findings "lend support to the popular opinion that fish is brain food," Gary Myers, a pediatric neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical center, said in an accompanying editorial.

The researchers analyzed food questionnaires that 11,875 women in the United Kingdom completed at 32 weeks of pregnancy. Their children were tested in intervals from ages 6 months to 8 years.

The fetal brain needs substances called fatty acids found in fish oils to build cells and grow. The fatty acid content of breast milk is largely determined by diet.

The US agencies suggested that pregnant women limit their fish intake to avoid fetal exposure to trace amounts of neurotoxins.