Dark chocolate in pregnancy is great for the baby

Did you know...

Dark chocolate is a great "snack" for the foetus, as it promotes its growth and development if the mother-to-be eats it in moderate amounts, that is 30 grams a day.

This is what a study presented at the 2016 Pregnancy Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Atlanta suggests: as well as keeping cholesterol in check and substantially reducing the risk of anaemia, eating chocolate helps keep blood pressure regular and therefore potentially reduces the risk of pre-eclampsia.

Dark chocolate is also good not only for pregnant women but for all women in general, because it improves mood, eases premenstrual syndrome, helps sexual performance and reduces headache attacks. And then... 30 grams of chocolate provide about 130 calories, so they pose no threat whatsoever to your weight!

To demonstrate this, researchers atUniversité Laval Québec City in Canada involved 129 pregnant women and asked them to eat 30 grams of chocolate a day of various types, both dark chocolate very rich in antioxidants and ordinary chocolate low in antioxidants. All the women had been selected because they were at risk of high blood pressure in pregnancy, and it emerged that after 12 weeks maternal blood flow to the foetus had improved, suggesting that moderate daily chocolate consumption could benefit foetal growth and development and, ultimately, help the baby reach a good birth weight.

Next week we will finally look at the 10 foods and drinks that, on the contrary, should be avoided, or at least limited, during pregnancy.