It’s a win/win for pregnant ladies, potentially. A Yale University study has found that eating a regular amount of dark chocolate may reduce the risk of preeclampsia, a condition afflicting pregnant women that causes wild spikes of high blood pressure. Elizabeth Triche of the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology  headed the study, which found the following, as summed up in this Reuters article:

To investigate whether chocolate's possible cardiovascular benefits also might help prevent preeclampsia, the researchers looked at 2,291 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 percent 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.

I must note that in other coverage, the numbers of participants is different- this article says there were only 1,681 participants. Of course, I’m counting on our science MTs (Aussieyank? Lyn?) to pipe up with their professional interpretation, however if there are plans for a multi-year, multi-continent study to further analyse this finding, I’ll put my hand up. I’m doing it for the sisterhood, of course. Just pass me the chocolate.

How about it, MTs? Can we pay attention to this week’s study because we like the findings?

In 1984, I spent time in Prague while it was still behind the Iron Curtain. We stood in line and went to a small hole-in-the-wall "market" that was merely a closet with shelving to find chocolate. We got the most expensive chocolate we could get (not that there was much to choose from). After spending two hours looking for a bank in a Communist country, we opened the wrapper while in line for the bank. It was a milky tan bar and our hearts sank. A Czech woman turned to us and said, "Don't worry; we don't like our chocolate either."

US Chocolate makers are asking the FDA allow them to redefine chocolate. Instead of cocoa butter they can use vegetable fats. Instead of milk, they can use milk substitutes. If the FDA lets them get away with this it will be the end of chocolate as we know it. The word chocolate will loose its meaning.