The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international agencies are in the process of revising guidelines concerning fish consumption in an attempt to better reflect the nutritional benefits of fish.
Currently, the FDA recommend that pregnant women should eat fish no more than twice a week. The reason for limiting fish consumption is because much of the mercury in the environment ends up in the world's oceans, so fish contain small amounts of the chemical.
Although a link between consumption of fish and childhood developmental problems has never been conclusively proved, experts have previously been concerned about the consequences of elevated mercury levels in pregnant women.
However, fish contain many beneficial nutrients. For example, their fatty acids are essential for good brain development.
A partnership between the University of Rochester Medical Center, NY, Ulster University in Belfast, UK, and the Republic of Seychelles Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education yielded the Seychelles Child Development Study - one of the longest and largest population studies of its kind.
As the 89,000 residents of the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean consume approximately 10 times as much fish in their diet as people in the US or Europe, the region was considered to be an ideal location for measuring the public health impact of low-level mercury exposure over a long period
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However, fish contain many beneficial nutrients. For example, their fatty acids are essential for good brain development.
A partnership between the University of Rochester Medical Center, NY, Ulster University in Belfast, UK, and the Republic of Seychelles Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education yielded the Seychelles Child Development Study - one of the longest and largest population studies of its kind.
As the 89,000 residents of the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean consume approximately 10 times as much fish in their diet as people in the US or Europe, the region was considered to be an ideal location for measuring the public health impact of low-level mercury exposure over a long period