An international team of nutritionists from Europe and the US came to the conclusion that excessive consumption by pregnant women of fish increases the risk of their offspring being obese. The results of the research, the authors published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, and briefly about them, reports Reuters.
In their work, the researchers analyzed data from 15 studies describing the diet of pregnant women from Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the USA. Doctors studied the information about 26 184 pregnant women and their children who were observed at intervals of from two to six years.
The aim of the research was to establish the link between consumption by pregnant women of fish and the risk of obesity in offspring. Physicians evaluated the body mass index in children aged three months to six years and showed that eating fish more than three times a week can cause obesity in the offspring.
With moderate fish consumption (one to three times a week), the researchers found no links with the rapid growth of offspring or obesity (for children not older than six years), whereas frequent consumption of fish by pregnant women has led to an increase in the probability of obesity in the offspring to four years — by 14 percent, and 22 percent — to six.
Children at abusing fish diet women grow faster than normal and subsequently run the risk of becoming obese. The reason for this scientists see in contained in fish mercury and pesticides, which leads to hormonal changes during fetal development in the womb and (as shown by earlier research) the damage to the immune and nervous systems.
Doctors recommend to limit consumption of predatory fish such as king mackerel, swordfish, shark and Kotelnik. They, according to scientists, can contain more pollutants than other sea creatures. The team also noted that fish contain many healthy compounds, particularly proteins, vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, so to completely abandon it for pregnant women it is not necessary.
