[magosienne]

now you can be greedy
i thought this was interesting, most of the time chocolate means magnesium to me (hey, remember it was also used as an anti depressant in the past). although dark chocolate is not my favorite, i'll sure remember this when i'll be pregnant can you tell i love chocolate ?
Chocolate may reduce pregnancy complications

Indulging in chocolate during pregnancy could help ward off a serious complication known as preeclampsia, new research suggests.

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is rich in a chemical called theobromine, which stimulates the heart, relaxes smooth muscle and dilates blood vessels, and has been used to treat chest pain, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries, Dr. Elizabeth W. Triche of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and colleagues write.


Preeclampsia, in which blood pressure spikes during pregnancy while excess protein is released into the urine, has many features in common with heart disease, the researchers add.


To investigate whether chocolate's possible cardiovascular benefits also might help prevent preeclampsia, the researchers looked at 2291 women who delivered a single infant, and asked them about how much chocolate they consumed in their first and third trimesters.


The researchers also tested levels of theobromine in infants' umbilical cord blood.


Women who consumed the most chocolate and those whose infants had the highest concentration of theobromine in their cord blood were the least likely to develop preeclampsia.


Women in the highest quarter for cord blood theobromine were 69 per cent less likely to develop the complication than those in the lowest quarter.


Women who ate five or more servings of chocolate each week in their third trimester of pregnancy were 40 percent less likely to develop preeclampsia than those who ate chocolate less than once a week.


A similar, but weaker, relationship between chocolate consumption and preeclampsia risk was seen in the first trimester, with women eating five or more servings of chocolate each week at 19 percent lower risk than those who ate chocolate less than once a week.


Theobromine could improve circulation within the placenta while blocking oxidative stress, or it could also be a stand-in for other beneficial chemicals found in chocolate, Triche and her team note in the May issue of Epidemiology.


"Our results raise the possibility that chocolate consumption by pregnant women may reduce the occurrence of preeclampsia," they write.
"Because of the importance of preeclampsia as a major complication of pregnancy, replication of these results in other large prospective studies with a detailed assessment of chocolate consumption is warranted."



Source

[Aprill]

Very cool

[charish]

hm, i love chocolate.

[daer0n]

Nice, wish i would have known that when i was preggo with my first kid, i would have endulged on chocolate, cause i love it!
Thanks for posting Mag

[Karren_Hutton]

I love chocolate too...

[lapuce]

Thanks for posting!! No more guilt of eating chocolate while pregnant. Too bad I know this a bit too late ( 3 kids later). I will pass the info to other mommies to be

[Adrienne]

Man that's so awesome. I love dark chocolate so this is so awesome. I'll remember this for my next pregnancy