What started with three women sitting around a table - one of them pregnant - has turned into a new kind of chocolate.  

Xan Confections, a Calif.-based confectionery company, has introduced a line of chocolates made specifically for pregnant women. Coco Preggers combines a healthy amount of folic acid to help prevent birth defects with DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid important to brain development.  

“We decided it was a perfect match to make sure the pregnant women got those added essential nutrients beyond what their vitamins are giving them,” says Tracey Downey, the well-known Orange County chocolatier with Xan Confections. Downey explains that no other company seems to be targeting this specific segment so Xan wanted to “kick it up to the next level and add some nutraceuticals that work,” to the chocolate.  

Xan Confections President Kerry Johnson Anthony, who will soon deliver her third child, says the chocolate wasn’t created as a replacement to the normal prenatal vitamins, but rather as a tasty supplement.  

“If I’m having two pieces of chocolate a day that has 100 calories with folic acid and DHA, what is there to feel guilty about?,” Anthony says. “There’s already so much, being pregnant, that you’re going without. You can’t have your sushi, your caffeine.”  

The fortified bar contains 50 milligrams of DHA and 200 micrograms of folic acid, 50% of the daily allowance for both nutrients suggested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  

Downey and Johnson are able to add both of these ingredients without affecting the overall taste. DHA is a vegetarian product derived from an algae. This specific DHA is the same one used in baby formulas and tends to eliminate the fishy taste usually associated with most omega-3’s. As a result the chocolate flavor stays intact.  

“They all just taste fantastic. They don’t taste like they have anything added to the middle,” says Downey.  

Xan chocolates, which can be found in Whole Foods and Bristol Farms, also produce a line of confections with hearty, immunity and brain boosting properties.  

For more information visit www.xanconfections.com  

-G.W.