Fish provides essential nutrients for babies’ brain development — but many pregnant mothers are avoiding tuna because of unfounded fears of mercury poisoning, ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross argues in today’s Daily Caller. Calling attention to a draft FDA report recommending that Americans, and pregnant women in particular, should increase seafood consumption to two servings a week, Dr. Ross writes:
I bet you haven’t heard that. It’s more likely you’ve heard the opposite — that women should cut down on their seafood intake. Sadly, that’s just what has happened, to the detriment of our health.
Government agencies actually influence what the media encourage us to eat. When the Dietary Guidelines are updated, their effects will trickle into stories in magazines and on television. It’s important that these guidelines reflect the most accurate science on what’s healthy.
(Ross wrote a similarly themed piece in 2007: Eat More Fish: Your Baby and Your Heart Will Thank You)
