Can pregnant women eat chocolate?

The content of the article

1 The benefits of chocolate during pregnancy
2 What is the harm of chocolate during pregnancy?
3 What chocolate is best to eat during pregnancy?
4 Video: the benefits and harm of chocolate

Every woman, as soon as she finds out about her interesting position, tries in every way to protect her baby from all sorts of diseases and ills. The first and most important thing that a future mother can do is to give up bad habits, devote more time to her health, try to keep an active lifestyle. But most importantly, you need to change the food - to exclude salty, fried and harmful products from the diet, to abandon the semi-finished products and sweet baked pastries. But what to do with chocolate? Is he too harmful so that you should forget about him during pregnancy? Chocolate is a unique product that can change the mood of any woman. How it affects the body during pregnancy, try to figure it out.

The benefits of chocolate during pregnancy

Saying "chocolate" we will mean a quality product made from natural cocoa beans,without the addition of vegetable or palm fat. If you are just such a delicacy, do not deny yourself the pleasure. After all, natural chocolate is not only possible, but necessary, even during pregnancy.

First of all, chocolate is an inexhaustible source of endorphins, which increase mood, contribute to the development of the hormone of joy and happiness. After eating a piece of chocolate, a woman becomes much calmer, her emotional state stabilizes, life becomes better!
The composition of natural chocolate is flavonoids, which are useful for female beauty. These substances strengthen the walls of blood vessels, making them more elastic. Regular, but moderate consumption of natural chocolate slows down the aging process in the body.
In chocolate, there is sugar and caffeine, they improve brain function. This is especially true for pregnant women who continue to work and lead an active lifestyle - learn, go to work, etc. A slice of chocolate will help you to collect your thoughts and concentrate, to get rid of apathy and drowsiness.
Often women in early pregnancy suffer from toxemia, which increases with fasting.That is, a vicious circle is formed - you cannot eat, because you are sick, you are sick, because you are hungry. You can break the circle with the help of chocolate. A piece of tasty delicacy usually suppresses nausea and vomiting, the body does not repel a useful product. In addition, only one slice of chocolate can support a woman with energy and vitamins.
Chocolate has an excellent property to relax tense muscles. This can be used not only with hypertonicity of the uterus, but also in the prenatal period - the opening of the cervix will occur much easier.
Chocolate contains a lot of useful substances that a woman needs during pregnancy. This ensures normal growth and formation of the baby in the womb.
Chocolate has a lot of magnesium, it is necessary for the growth and development of a child’s brain. A sufficient amount of magnesium in the body is a defense against stress, cramps of the limbs, uterus hypertonus, etc.
Natural cocoa beans contain iron, which is essential for raising hemoglobin levels in the blood. Good chocolate is the prevention of iron deficiency anemia.
High-quality chocolate can increase blood pressureit is not just effective, but also safe medicine for hypotensive, because many drugs during pregnancy are banned.

Recent studies have shown that regular consumption of natural chocolate can prevent the development of pro-eclampsia. The diagnosis develops due to insufficient functionality of the heart, manifested by high blood pressure and severe edema.

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What is the harm of chocolate during pregnancy?

The main risk is that chocolate is one of the strongest allergens. If a woman has ever been allergic to chocolate, it should be abandoned, because during pregnancy, the body's reaction increases tenfold. Even if allergies have never happened, it is necessary to limit the consumption of chocolate in late pregnancy. The fact is that after 30 weeks the child’s own immune barrier is formed, which is different from the mother. If during this period you lean on allergenic foods, the baby may suffer from diathesis, the allergy to sweets in a child will last for a lifetime or for many years.

Another minus of chocolate is high caffeine content.In small quantities, of course, it is safe, but an excess of chocolate can lead to excessive activity of the baby in the womb, the woman herself has anxiety, anxiety, panic attacks. Abuse of chocolate is also a high risk of gaining excess fat mass. After all, this is quite a high-calorie product, you should not use it without a measure. Frequent and uncontrolled eating chocolate impairs the blood supply in the body, this can slow down the blood flow to the placenta, the baby will suffer. In addition, after chocolate, heartburn can intensify, which in the later stages of pregnancy constantly torments the future mom.

What chocolate is best to eat during pregnancy?

Many sweet-mothers who cannot refuse a favorite delicacy want to choose something very tasty, but the least harmful. Speaking of benefits, we mean that all the valuable and important substances in chocolate are due to cocoa beans. Therefore, white chocolate in the absence of cocoa is not so useful. You can eat it, but there is very little use in it. Much more valuable is milk chocolate. The most useful is bitter chocolate with a high content of cocoa.Try not to eat chocolate with nuts - this is an additional allergen. In order not to harm the baby and feel good, it is enough to eat no more than 25 grams of chocolate per day.

If the future mom wants your favorite chocolate - do not deny her that. A moderate consumption of delicacy will bring only benefit and good mood to a pregnant woman!

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