Originally: DHA Pregnancy - The Secret to a Healthier Baby and a Healthier Pregnancy
A pregnant pause? Why expectant mothers should keep up their omega-3 intake.
It's nothing short of a minefield. Somewhere between avocados and leafy greens, the dietary taboos are bound to come crashing d own on a pregnant woman, as if she's been infested by an alien and a Michelin connoisseur all at once. Some give up entirely and rely on a everything-in-moderation rule; some hire a team of nutritionists and the odd shaman; and some especially hungry ones ponder the black widow spider's strategy of devouring the male upon consummation.
But almost every one of them sticks to at least one commandment (or myth, depending on your level of paranoia), and that's a strict limit on oily fish intake at one portion a week. The well-intentioned rule was announced upon the discovery of poisonous heavy metals and fat-soluble toxins in fish. Though they are only ever present in trace amounts, these substances cannot be excreted by the human body at all and as such poses severe risks to children and pregnant women when consumed in abundance.
The rationale is sound and proven to an extent, but it fails to take new evidence into account. Never mind that Harvard researchers have now relaxed the rule because the benefits outweigh the risk of developmental defects. There's also a somewhat ironic twist: some of the benefits in fish are so diluted you can't capture it even if you have it for every single meal.
This is a bit complicated, especially if you're bearing a child (trivia: pregnancy makes you dumb, temporarily. Ask any mother/scientist.) In general, the benefits of fish come in two ways: it's a balanced source of nutrition, and it provides DHA.
DHA is a form of omega-3 fatty acid, which in term is an macro-nutrient as defined by the FDA. Omega-3s are generally described as "essential" because our bodies cannot manufacture it on its own. So we absorb omega-3 from fish, leafy greens, and so forth, which strikes an equilibrium with omega-6 and omega-9 sourced from the rest of our diets.
But our bodies are discerning consumers: while it finds a use for all omega-3 fatty acids, it would be on the lookout for a rare variety called DHA. When deprived of it, the body would try to make some of its own by an inefficient conversion process from other omega-3s. This compares very well with fish, who paradoxically don't make DHA at all, but accumulates it by scavenging algae.
DHA is the key here. As an agent of tissue development and growth, it assists in the infant's brain development. You might dismiss hand-eye coordination as a sport thing. But the language areas, which are unique to humans and the essence of our intelligence, are aided by the presence of DHA as well. As a matter of fat, a third of the human brain is made up of fatty acids, and the figure rises to 70% in the case of a new-born.
The mother herself benefits from improved overall health, and more specifically a lower incidence of post-natal depression. These are some of the reasons that DHA supplements during pregnancy are now formally recommended by European Union guidelines.
But since no amount of fish recipes would bring you the necessary amounts of DHA, fish oil supplements are the way to go. Try cooking up 250mg of DHA in your meals everyday, if you don't want to take my word for it. You'll be hugging a bottle by nightfall.
