As of: February 24, 2024, 3:36 p.m
By: Robin Dittrich
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Parents have to pay attention to a few things when feeding infants and young children.
According to studies, avoiding tuna is also extremely important.
Kassel – Mercury can damage the central nervous system of unborn babies, infants and young children.
This is also why global emissions should be reduced.
However, sea fish such as tuna still contain too much of it.
Although tuna is particularly popular with athletes, care should be taken when consuming it.
Studies show that small children and infants should not eat tuna
Methylmercury is known to damage the central nervous system.
This particularly affects small children, infants and unborn children, as the Federal Environment Agency writes.
“In pregnant women, organic mercury can cross the placental barrier and then cause serious damage to the developing brain of unborn children,” it says.
Infants and young children are at risk because nerve tissue is particularly vulnerable after birth.
A soy allergy should not be ignored in children either.
RTL nutrition expert Nora Rieder also advises that pregnant women should avoid tuna and should not give it to small children: “Since development is not yet complete and their nervous tissue is particularly vulnerable, they are particularly at risk of neurotoxic effects.” Problems caused by excessive mercury intake range from speech disorders, impaired memory and motor problems.
The expert recommends choosing salmon, mackerel or herring instead.
Tuna is popular with many people.
Pregnant women should avoid tuna - mercury is to blame.
© Zoonar/Imago (symbol image)
Oceans still polluted with mercury - pollution the same since 1971
In recent decades, mercury pollution has been significantly reduced.
However, the contamination of tuna with the highly toxic heavy metal has remained almost the same since the beginning of the 1970s.
The reason for this is said to be the mercury, which is deposited at depths of 50 meters below the ocean surface.
This repeatedly enters the food chain of many sea creatures, as a research group wrote in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letter.
As the group led by Anaïs Médieu from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in Plouzané reported, mercury emissions fell particularly in Europe, North America and the states of the former Soviet Union.
But this had little impact in the oceans.
Predatory fish such as tuna ingest mercury when they eat contaminated animals, and the heavy metal then settles in the muscles.
The older they get, the greater the burden.
(
rd/dpa
)