A study has found that children of women who ate little fish during pregnancy had lower IQs and more behavioural and social problems than youngsters whose mothers ate plenty of seafood.

The study finds “no evidence to lend support to the warning of the US advisory that pregnant women should limit their seafood consumption,” concluded the team led by Joseph Hibbeln, a researcher at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, writing in the Lancet.

The study found that children born to women who ate about three servings of fish per week or less—near the maximum advised by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency—had lower verbal IQs. This leads fine motor skills problems , and higher rates of behavioural difficulties, compared to youngsters whose mothers consumed more seafood during pregnancy.

This is are expected to help determine whether the benefits of eating seafood for some segments of the population outweigh the risks of ingesting methlymercury and other contaminants, including polychlorinated biphenyls. “The US warnings are not meant to discourage fish consumption,” said Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard