Eating fish during pregnancy to help child development DR
Eat plenty of fish during pregnancy would be good for cognitive and physical development of children, according to a Danish study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. These benefits of fish cover fish known as "low level of mercury", such as salmon, herring, mackerel, and cod.
The work, led by the team of Professor Emily Oken, were conducted with 25,446 children born to Danish mothers, between 1997 and 2002. From the observations of researchers, who interviewed the mothers, babies born to mothers who ate lots of fish during pregnancy tended to have greater physical and cognitive abilities.
Among children whose mothers ate the least fish, 5.7% are in the group with the worst scores of development, against only 3.7% of children of mothers who ate lots of fish.
According to the study, the fact to breastfeed longer would have similar consequences. The presence of omega-3 in breast milk, as in fish, is one possible explanation.