The new pro-fish guidelines come from the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition -- which includes the American Academy of Pediatrics and the March of Dimes, as well as federal agencies like the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And as reported last night on NPR, groups are listed who say they are not members and don't know anything about the study. Not to mention that this group received funding from the fishing industry's trade group.

They got money from the National Fisheries Institute for it. Some of the group's members had no idea this was coming, and do NOT agree with the conclusions.

NPR had good coverage of this last night: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15005507

doesn't it say at least 12 oz every week, not every day?

Yes, that's right - not 12 oz a day. The very thought makes me gag (note that I am a vegetarian).

Wikipedia lists multiple botanical sources of omega-3 fatty acids, including flax, walnuts, kiwi and acai. And also mentions eggs, grass-fed meats (including lamb and beef) and the milk and milk products from grass-fed cows.

But not this one. As others have also noted you haven't researched it well.

Also, what are we saying - the billions of mothers who have never eaten anywhere near these quantities of fish are somehow bad mothers? How do we know the gains in IQ weren't offset by other negative health related factors?

How do we know there wasn't a similar conflict of interest in the IQ research?

My take would be to follow the well researched FDA position, which is supported by numerous other studies. We know that mercury is a problem and enormous groups of mothers over millions of years have had low fish diets and their children have done fine.

But I say this without having my own respected column read by many. Without really researching what you are talking about you have further muddied the waters. In the future to avoid perhaps helping misleed people on a very important subject, make sure you do your research.

There's no need to eat fish for these nutrients. Once can use flax seed oil and other flax products, hemp seed or hemp oil or hemp milk, or just go to the dietary supplements section of the store and seek out vegetarian formulas in capsule form.

No need to kill fish, no need to risk ingesting toxins from fish. It's win-win all around.

That was a fun way to get some news! The same waffling is always going on about %'s of fat in milk or organic or... well, choose any food and there are changes that are extreme and confusing.

I like Woody Allen's take in Sleeper (1973), when his character is being observed by the guys in white lab coats through the window:

"Dr. Melik: This morning for breakfast he requested something called "wheat germ, organic honey and tiger's milk."

Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.

Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or... hot fudge?

Dr. Aragon: Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.

Dr. Melik: Incredible."

Some people might not want to 'skip the fish', so knowing which ones to eat is really great news for them. However, knowing how to get our EFAs from veggie sources is great news for us, too. And most of them are things I might not otherwise choose because of high cost and fat content - like avocadoes and nuts. Much cheaper and better for me than any encapsulated nutritional supplement! YUM!

Hemp seed has all the short chain EFAs you need, but I haven't seen any research suggesting that your body can turn those short EFAs into DHA.

I think only fish provides DHA. DHA is the EFA that's been associated with neural protection in scientific studies.

Newsflash: most of America does NOT live in an area where clean, safe, TASTY fish is available.

I have opted for supplements that contain EPA (the constituent in fish oil that's effective in reducing depression). I also like knowing that this stuff is molecularly distilled: mercury and other pollutions are out of that fish oil - and it is enteric coated: I don't have to burp up fishy taste!

I've read about Omega-3 and Omega-6 backward and forward. YES, you should be excited about what scientists are learning: symptoms of depression, ADHD, dementia, and alzheimers are certainly diminished or even alleviated by an increased intake of Omega 3. The typical American gets a lot of Omega 6, not so much Omega 3, and this imbalance makes it difficult for your body to take in the Omega 3 you DO get.

I recently purchased (no - I am not making a dime from them) NOW brand Ultra Omega-3 500 EPA/250 DHA. I'll be taking 2 per day to start and increasing slowly to reduce seasonal depression symptoms.

But why listen to me? If you're a research geek like me, visit the library, read Andrew Stol's _The Omega-3 Connection_, visit this site to understand better how this stuff works, http://www.nowfoods.com/?cat_id=4993, or try this article http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=533861 (yeah - 2004, but it's an academic yet readable piece).

BUT if you're looking to just get going now, just stroll over to your local healthfoods/Whole Foods store and have a conversation with their on-site expert about the benefits of Omega 3 and what you should buy. (Doctor? Hmmm, we're in America. Do you have health insurance? If you did, does the doc give much brain space to nutrition and supplements?)

Signed,

A former librarian who loves health.

I tend to think the mercury fears are overblown. For years I ate tuna and other fish (some predatory, some not) in a comfortable quantity, and I have always lived in polluted cities by polluted waterways. If anyone would have mercury toxicity issues, I thought, it could be me -- 'cause you never know, right?

A couple of years ago I started to change my habits before trying to get pregnant. Notably, I also participated in a mercury toxicity study run by Greenpeace, where I sent in a hair sample and answered questions about my eating habits. The level of mercury in my sample was well below the most conservative levels of the countries that monitor mercury in fish, as well as the level Greenpeace considered problematic (and way below the FDA's worry level). People get understandably worried about mercury risks, but the reality is that it's entirely possible to eat very scary fish and live next to cities with industrialized waterways and still have no toxicity issues.

Unfortunately, I can't eat fish now that I'm actually pregnant. I've tried, but it makes me feel thoroughly nauseous, and it's an active effort to choke down even the best prepared, highest quality fish. I supplement with omega fish oils, eat high fiber grains that include flaxseed and hope for the best.

As for how any of these guidelines affect whether or not I "should" judge myself "bad" for any of these choices or whether or not anyone else chooses to judge me for what I eat, the rest of the world can go fuck itself. My job is to do what I can when I can for myself and my family -- it is not to please government panels, industry groups, well-meaning nosybodies or anyone else. Every decision of a pregnant woman (and later every decision of a mother) is judged somehow, every act or omission considered the subject of public scorn and derision, and it is that attitude that needs to change -- not the actions or attitudes of women who are doing their best for their families.