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Don't smoke, don't drink. Do eat chocolate.
July/August 2008
by Emily Anthes '05
Mothers-to-be, indulge: chocolate, in moderation,
could assure you a safer pregnancy. A team of Yale researchers demonstrated
that chocolate consumption during pregnancy is associated with a lower
incidence of preeclampsia, a disorder of pregnancy characterized by high blood
pressure and protein in the urine. The condition can threaten the health -- and
even survival -- of both the mother and her child. "Preeclampsia in pregnancy is
one of the top causes of maternal mortality in the world," says Elizabeth Triche,
a research scientist in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health and the
study's lead author. "There's evidence in the literature that chocolate can
benefit cardiovascular health, and preeclampsia shares a lot of characteristics
with cardiovascular disease."
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Chocolate does indeed have a protective effect. But no one is sure why.
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As part of a larger study on prenatal nutrition, the
researchers analyzed the chocolate consumption of more than 2,000 women, who
were asked to report how much chocolate they ate during the first and third
trimesters of their pregnancies. After the women gave birth, Triche's team
measured the level of theobromine, a metabolite of chocolate, in each child's
umbilical cord blood. (Higher levels indicate higher levels of chocolate
consumption.)
Women who had the highest levels of theobromine were
significantly less likely to develop preeclampsia than women with the lowest
levels, the team reported in the May issue of Epidemiology. This suggests that chocolate does indeed have a
protective effect. But no one is sure why.
"There are over 600 plant chemicals in chocolate,"
Triche says. The flavonoids, magnesium, and theobromine present in chocolate
are all known to spur dilation of the body's blood vessels. Any of the three
ingredients (or some combination of them) could be responsible for preventing preeclampsia.
Triche recommends that expectant moms refrain from
eating chocolate by the bucketful, which could cause too much weight gain or
other problems during pregnancy. The women in the study benefited from
relatively small amounts, she says. Exactly how much chocolate is guilt-free?
"Maybe a candy bar a day." 
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