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Oct. 17, 2006 -- The health advantages of eating seafood outweigh the risks for most Americans, a report by government-sponsored experts concludes.
The report was issued Tuesday by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Its conclusions could help lay to rest ongoing fears that contamination from pollutants like methyl mercury and microbes like bacteria and viruses make seafood consumption unsafe.
Still, experts repeated warnings from the FDA that women who are pregnant or may become pregnant or are breastfeedingbreastfeeding, and children up to age 12, limit their intake of some seafood and avoid others altogether.
The seafood industry has complained that such warnings have driven much of the public away from consuming fish, though it is touted as a high-protein, low-saturated-fat food source. The IOM panel issued the report at the request of a division the U.S. Department of Commerce, which promotes American business interests domestically and overseas.
"The average person can consume more fish than they do," says Susan M. Krebs-Smith, PhD, a panelist who is chief of the risk factor monitoring and methods branch of the National Cancer Institute.
Seafood Benefits
Some studies have concluded that regular seafood consumption can cut heart diseaseheart disease risk by virtue of omega-3 fatty acids in fish and some shellfish. But though it acknowledged those studies, the IOM panel warned that the cardiovascular benefits of eating fish remain by and large unproven.
The report did not take into account a new Harvard University study, published in this week's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, concluding that regularly eating salmon and other fish high in omega-3 fatty acids can cut risk of death from heart disease by more than a third.
The study, based on a review of previous research, also concludes that the benefits of eating salmon on the heart greatly outweigh what some studies have pegged as an increased cancer risk owing to dioxin contamination found in farm-raised fish.
"If you consume a variety [of fish], then you?re not going to get a high intake of anything" toxic, says Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, a researcher who conducted the study and briefed reporters today in Washington.