Did you know that eating a bar of chocolate a day when you are pregnant could reduce your risk of suffering from preeclampsia. No? Neither did I. Not that I suffered from it, but I would have welcomed the excuse to eat a bar of chocolate a day when I was pregnant. Seems that all the good reasons for naughty things always come out after I’ve had cause to use the excuse. Hardly fair really.
So, anyway, research shows that women who ate chocolate at least five times a week during their pregnancy were up to 40 per cent less likely to get preeclampsia than women who ate it less than once a week.
Preeclampsia is basically a condition where blood vessels in the placenta do not develop properly. The causes are unclear. But suffering from this condition can drive up a woman’s blood pressure and reduce the transfer of oxygen and nutrients to the baby. As a result, babies are often born prematurely and many die.
The latest research, published in the journal Epidemiology, seems to suggest that chocolate can help prevent this condition. Scientists at Yale University in the U.S. tracked 2,291 pregnant women, taking blood samples to measure levels of theobromine, a chemical that occurs naturally in chocolate and which has been linked with other health benefits, such as curing persistent coughs. (I think I can feel a cough coming on right now!!)
Those with the highest levels of theobromine from eating chocolate were least likely to suffer pre-eclampsia.
So, if you’re pregnant, start stocking up on those yummy milky way bars, and the Dove chocolate. You just can’t go wrong! Unless you suffer from gestational diabetes of course, in which case the chocolate is a no-no. Sorry.
Another use for chocolate, if you didn’t know it, is to prevent heart disease. Yup. You heard me right. But, the downside is that you are only allowed a small piece of DARK chocolate a day. I don’t like dark chocolate, so I’m just convincing myself that a piece of milk chocolate here and there will have health benefits too. At the very least, it cheers me up.
