OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS

These acids are called “essential” because your body doesn’t make them, so we need to get them from our diets. Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids build and maintain cells and are good for our eyes, brain and nerves. Fish is full of omega-3s, but because of mercury-poisoning concerns, eat no more than two to four portions of fish a week, choosing from the lowest-mercury-count fish we have on our markets: sardines, pilchards, anchovies, tinned tuna, salmon, hake and snoek.

“Studies have shown a relationship between high fish consumption by pregnant women and improved child cognition, verbal-intelligence quotient, fine-motor co-ordination and prosocial behaviour,” says Nicqui Grant, another Joburg dietician. “So the benefits of fish outweigh the potential disadvantages for increased intakes of contaminants.” If you don’t eat fish, try walnuts and flaxseed oil – and a supplement. Most of us get plenty of omega 6s from vegetable oils, nuts and seeds in our diet. But Dr Bronwyn Moore, Joburg-based gynaecologist, warns: “Take an omega-3 supplement only until 36 weeks. Omegas and other oils prolong your blood clotting time and so they can increase bleeding, bruising and ooze from a tear, episiotomy or C-section.”