FAO/ WHO Report of the Risks and Benefits of Fish Consumption Available

Interested in learning more about the relative health benefits and risks associated with eating seafood?

Recently a report by the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Consultation on the Risks and Benefits of Fish Consumption was published that provides a framework for assessing the net health benefits or risks of fish consumption. While the report itself it too long to share, below is a summary of what the report's expert panel concluded.

1. Consumption of fish provides energy, protein and a range of other important nutrients, including the long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCn3PUFAs).

2. Eating fish is part of the cultural traditions of many peoples. In some populations, fish is a major source of food and essential nutrients.

 

3. Among the general adult population, consumption of fish, particularly fatty fish, lowers the risk of mortality from coronary heart disease. There is an absence of probable or convincing evidence of risk of coronary heart disease associated with methylmercury. Potential cancer risks associated with dioxins are well below established coronary heart disease benefits from fish consumption.

4. When comparing the benefits of LCn3PUFAs with the risks of methylmercury among women of childbearing age, maternal fish consumption lowers the risk of suboptimal neurodevelopment in their offspring compared with the offspring of women not eating fish in most circumstances evaluated.

5. At levels of maternal exposure to dioxins (from fish and other dietary sources) that do not exceed the provisional tolerable monthly intake (PTMI) of 70 pg/kg body weight established by JECFA (for PCDDs, PCDFs and coplanar PCBs), neurodevelopmental risk for the fetus is negligible. At levels of maternal exposure to dioxins (from fish and other dietary sources) that exceed the PTMI, neurodevelopmental risk for the fetus may no longer be negligible.

6. Among infants, young children and adolescents, the available data are currently insufficient to derive a quantitative framework of the health risks and health benefits of eating fish. However, healthy dietary patterns that include fish consumption and are established early in life influence dietary habits and health during adult life.

To view the entire report visit:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/ba0136e/ba0136e00.pdf