This week we’ve covered a lot of healthy hints for pregnant mothers – from safe cosmetics and cleaning products, to natural ways to combat morning sickness. We also touched on the importance of avoiding BPA.
Like BPA, it’s important for pregnant and nursing women to limit their consumption of fish high in mercury – like tuna, red snapper, halibut, and swordfish – because the mercury passes directly to the placenta and into breast milk.
The Environmental Working Group, an environmental watchdog organization, checked into the mercury and fish connection in 1997 and discovered that fish harvested from United States waters were so filled with mercury that they should be eaten sparingly – if at all. Later, the Environmental Working Group “unearthed internal FDA transcripts in which agency officials opined that canned tuna contained enough mercury to harm the developing brain of a baby in the womb.” 1
They advise children age five and younger and all women of childbearing age to abstain from albacore tuna.
Mercury, a naturally occurring heavy metal, damages the brain, enzyme system, genetic system, immune system, and nervous system and is linked to cardiovascular disease. 2 It also accumulates as a body burden. And a form of mercury found in seafood, methylmercury, causes severe birth defects – that’s why pregnant women are advised to steer clear from eating fish high in mercury. Actually, steering clear of any form of mercury is a good idea for everyone – pregnant or not.
Talk back
Do you have any healthy advice for pregnant readers?
Sources
1. “Mercury.” Environmental Working Group.
2. “Mercury.” Environmental Working Group.
“Across Generations: About the Chemicals.” Environmental Working Group.
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