Thursday, July 2, 2009

Are Omega 3 Fats Important To Fetal Development?

By Peter Bertonich

DHA is a fat, or more strictly speaking and essential fatty acid. It is found right through our bodies and more importantly it is the major fat found in our brains. And DHA is essential for proper fetal and infant brain development.

Importantly it is also found in breast milk.

Now babies cannot produce their own DHA, so they get it from their mother. They get it through the placenta before they are born and from the breast milk after. For this reason a mother is constantly losing some of her supplies of DHA to her baby.

So for this exact reason the experts recommend that moms or moms to be take extra Omega 3 supplements containing DHA. And it's not just these supplements that are recommended, there are others like folic acid. But now as well moms should be taking DHA supplements to aid in the infant and fetal brain development.

Both for fetal brain and eye development as well as other aspects of fetal development.

Recommendations for how much DHA should be consumed by pregnant and nursing mothers varies, but are around 200 to 300 mg per day. With our modern diet it is unlikely that we get enough DHA in our diets.

Fish oil is the major, though not the only, source of DHA. Omega 3 fats found in fish are high in DHA. However there are some experts that are suggesting that moms do not take fish oil supplements high in DHA.

The fish at the high end of the food chain contain the most Omega 3 fats and so would be the obvious choice for a supply of DHA, but some experts believe that these fish are contaminated with some pollutants found in the sea like PCBs and mercury, and that mothers shouldn't be exposed to these.

And unfortunate though it is some fish oil supplements do indeed contain some of these contaminants.

There is in fact a number of different international standards relating to acceptable levels of contamination. But it's better to have no contamination, and luckily there is one company that seeks to achieve this. This company manufactures their omega 3 supplements a standard way higher than any of the international standards. This is good news for moms and soon to be moms, and for any of us, as we should all be taking Omega 3 fish oils supplements for our health.

So there now seems to be little doubt that mothers and pregnant women ought to be taking the best Omega 3 supplements high in DHA, for both their own health and the health and development of their babies.

Fortunately there are now clean Omega 3 fish oil supplements available that eliminate the need to worry about chemical contamination. Visit my website to find out where to source these.

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