Fish in mom's diet may alter kids' behavior

[xchrom]

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345639/title/Fish_in_moms_diet_may_alter_kids_behavior

For pregnant women, diets rich in fish can offer their babies protection against developing behaviors associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, a new study finds. Yet for most Americans, fish consumption is the leading source of exposure to mercury — a potent neurotoxic pollutant that has been linked to a host of health problems, including delays in neural development.

Data from the new study, published online October 8 in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, demonstrate that low-mercury diets and regular fish consumption are not mutually exclusive, says epidemiologist and study leader Susan Korrick of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It really depends on the type of fish that you’re eating,” she says. In fact, some study participants had been eating more than two servings of fish weekly yet accumulated relatively little mercury.

As part of a long-running study of children born during the 1990s in New Bedford, Mass., 515 women who had just given birth completed a dietary survey. About 420 also provided samples of their hair for mercury testing. About eight years later, Korrick’s team administered a battery of IQ and other tests to assess behaviors associated with ADHD in the children.

The children spanned a continuum running from almost no ADHD-related behaviors to those with outright clinical disease. A mom’s hair-mercury level tended to be associated with where her child fell along this spectrum.

[MADem]

1. This is interesting, the ADHD pollution link too.

So it's cut back on the tuna and swordfish steaks (I'm not a big eater of "shark" so that isn't a concern) and stick with my good friends salmon and cod!

Although this study did not collect data on the species of fish eaten, Korrick points to work by others showing that tuna, swordfish and shark can be quite high in mercury, while salmon and cod tend to pick up relatively little of the toxic metal from their environment.

Among women with less than 1 microgram of mercury per gram of hair, fish consumption was associated with a lower risk of ADHD-type behaviors in their children. Over that threshold, increasing mercury levels were associated with an increased risk of ADHD-type behaviors in the kids, regardless of how much fish their moms ate.

Children of women with hair mercury levels in the top 20 percent of the study population showed a 50 to 60 percent increased risk of ADHD-related behaviors, Korrick says — “which is not trivial.” However, she adds, most children showing ADHD-related traits “were still considered to be within the normal range — and not maladaptive.”

On some tests, boys showed a greater sensitivity to mercury than girls. ....Studies have begun pointing to a genetic susceptibility to ADHD in some individuals (SN: 9/10/11, p. 12). However, pollutants are also emerging as risk factors, notes Bruce Lanphear of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Besides lead and mercury, these pollutants include tobacco smoke and possibly polychlorinated biphenyls, certain pesticides and bisphenol A, he says.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345639/title/Fish_in_moms_diet_may_alter_kids_behavior

[Warpy]

2. I've been eating a lot of pollock

They're smaller fish, about midway up the food chain and not in danger at all, unlike cod and salmon. It's an extremely mild white fish, not a hell of a lot of flavor, but it's protein and it's cheap. It's also available flash frozen here in NM.

I generally saute the fillets in butter over medium heat, add a splash of dry white wine (usually dry vermouth) and a sprinkle of fresh parsley and that's it.

If I had my druthers, I'd live on halibut, king mackerel, salmon, and swordfish. However, some of those are unavailable and others are becoming endangered. I'm old, so I don't have to care so much about the pollution.

So pollock it is.

Still, I find this study interesting, that even with an increased mercury load, fish still conferred protection against ADHD and ADD.

[MADem]

3. I love fish--you can come cook at my house any day--simplicity is elegance! nt