Dark Chocolate Benefits for Pregnant Women

Here is more wonderful news about the benefits of dark chocolate! Did you know it is incredibly beneficial for pregnant women?

Here's more from The Medical News:
"...According to scientific research in the U.S. eating chocolate, especially dark chocolate, during pregnancy is good for mother and baby.
The new research suggests it could help prevent a serious complication known as pre-eclampsia, where the blood pressure soars during pregnancy and excess protein is released into the urine.
Dr. Elizabeth Triche from Yale University says pre-eclampsia is a major pregnancy complication which has cardiovascular manifestations such as hypertension and affects up to eight percent of pregnancies.
The researchers say dark chocolate is particularly rich in a chemical called theobromine, which stimulates the heart, relaxes smooth muscle and dilates blood vessels; it has been used to treat chest pain, hypertension, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries.
Dr. Triche and her colleagues wanted to see whether chocolate's suspected cardiovascular benefits also might help prevent pre-eclampsia.
To do this, they studied 2,291 women who had delivered a single infant - they questioned them on how much chocolate they consumed in their first and third trimesters and also tested levels of theobromine in the infants' umbilical cord blood...."