Enjoying Seafood While Pregnant? Here's What You Need to Know!
Fish is a delicious and nutritious food that can be a great addition to your pregnancy diet. It's packed with protein, healthy fats, and essential vitamins and minerals that are important for both you and your baby. However, you might have heard some concerns about mercury in fish. Let's clear things up and make sure you enjoy all the benefits seafood has to offer!
Benefits of Fish During Pregnancy
- Brainpower Booster: Fish is rich in DHA, a fatty acid that's crucial for your baby's brain development. DHA helps build brain cells and supports cognitive function.
- Building Blocks for Baby: Fish is an excellent source of protein, which is essential for your baby's growth and development.
- Essential Nutrients: Fish is loaded with vitamins and minerals that are important for both you and your baby, including vitamin D, iodine, and selenium. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium for strong bones, iodine is essential for thyroid function, and selenium plays a role in fetal development.
Minimizing Mercury Exposure
While fish is a healthy choice, it's important to be mindful of mercury levels. Mercury is a metal that can be harmful to your baby's developing nervous system.
Here are some tips to choose fish that are lower in mercury:
- Variety is Key: Opt for a variety of fish types to avoid accumulating mercury from any one source.
- Pick Smaller Fish: Smaller fish tend to contain less mercury than larger fish since they live shorter lifespans and accumulate fewer pollutants. Great choices include sardines, anchovies, herring, shrimp, scallops, and mussels.
- Know What to Avoid: Consider limiting or avoiding fish that are known to be higher in mercury, such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish.
Finding Sustainable Seafood
Look for labels that indicate "sustainable seafood" or "low mercury" when buying fish. These labels can help you make informed choices about the seafood you consume.
Here are some resources to help you identify sustainable and low-mercury options:
- Nichols, Lily, and Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. Real Food for Fertility. (https://lilynicholsrdn.com/books/).
- Hibbeln, Joseph R., et al. “Relationships between seafood consumption during pregnancy and childhood and neurocognitive development: Two systematic reviews.” Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids 151 (2019): 14-36.
- Golding, Jean, et al. “The benefits of fish intake: Results concerning prenatal mercury exposure and child outcomes from the ALSPAC prebirth cohort.” Neurotoxicology 91 (2022): 22-30.
- Ralston, Nicholas VC, J. John Kaneko, and Laura J. Raymond. “Selenium health benefit values provide a reliable index of seafood benefits vs. risks.” Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology 55 (2019): 50-57.
- The Environmental Defense Fund offers a downloadable guide on "Selecting Seafood with Confidence" which explains labels like "Ocean Wise" and "Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)" that indicate sustainable practices [3]. (https://www.edf.org/article/new-hope-fight-against-mercury)
- The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) provides information on "Choosing Safe Fish & Shellfish While Pregnant or Breastfeeding" which includes a downloadable guide with pictures of fish to avoid due to higher mercury content [3]. (https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/advice-about-eating-fish)
By following these tips, you can enjoy the many benefits of fish while minimizing your exposure to mercury. Talk to your doctor for personalized recommendations on incorporating fish into your pregnancy diet, but be sure to apply critical thinking and make sure your doctor is using evidence-backed recommendations! Consider reading up further on the research - I personally love this article which covers in more detail the controversy around fish during pregnancy with regards to mercury.
~Informed pregnancy, intentional birth~