Good news for expectant mothers: 30 grams of chocolate per day is not only possible, but you also need to allow yourself for the sake of the baby's health.

Canadian researchers came to the conclusion that chocolate during pregnancy promotes the intrauterine development of the child.

The results of the new study, presented at the meeting of the American Society of Fetal Medicine in Atlanta, support regular moderate consumption of chocolate by pregnant women.

But scientists warn that to abuse the product is not worth it because of the high content of fat, sugar and caffeine.

Earlier it was already proved that chocolate in small quantities is good for health. It contains flavanols, which protect against atherosclerotic changes in blood vessels. The darker the chocolate, the more flavanols it contains.

Some researchers have long argued that moderate amounts of chocolate during pregnancy reduce the likelihood of pre-eclampsia - a severe complication of pregnancy.

Dr. Emmanuel Bujold of the University of Laval in Quebec says that until recently in the scientific world there was no consensus on the use of chocolate by pregnant women.

Any chocolate can be useful for the fetus.

Dr. Buyold recruited 129 pregnant women with singleton pregnancy for the study from 11 to 14 weeks of gestation. Participants underwent Doppler study of the uterine arteries, which allows evaluation of uterine-placental blood flow and predict complications of pregnancy.

Future mothers were randomly divided into groups that either consumed 30 grams of chocolate each day with different amounts of flavanol, or had to abstain from chocolate. After 12 weeks, the researchers repeated the Doppler study and compared the results.

It turned out that those participants who consumed chocolate of any kind had less frequent gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia and had a better uterine-placental blood flow, and their fetus gained weight and developed better than those who did not use chocolate at all. These results, strangely enough, were completely independent of the content of flavanols in chocolate.

"Our study demonstrates that chocolate has a pronounced positive effect on uteroplacental blood flow, growth and development of the fetus, but these effects are presumably associated not only with the action of flavanols," says Dr. Buyold.

In the future, scientists are going to find out which substances cause the benefits of chocolate in pregnancy, and to establish the optimal dose of this product for expectant mothers.

medbe. en.