Pregnancy tips Pregnant? Go Easy On Licorice

With Halloween upon us and the abundance of candy everywhere, this may be an article you should read if you're pregnant or think you might become pregnant. Licorice may negatively affect fetal brain development. Read more:

www.sciencedaily.com

From the article:

It is thought that a component in licorice called glycyrrhizin may impair the placenta, allowing stress hormones to cross from the mother to the baby.

High levels of such hormones, known as glucocorticoids, are thought to affect fetal brain development and have been linked to behavioral disorders in children.

The results of the study are published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Eight-year-olds whose mothers had been monitored for licorice consumption during pregnancy were tested on a range of cognitive functions including vocabulary, memory and spatial awareness.