Oh Nuts Blog

It look like Pope Benedict XVI has a sweet kosher tooth, there is nothing like kosher cake to feed it. As it turns out, a famous kosher bakery in Rome’s ancient Jewish ghetto it is one of his favorite places to visit when it's time for desert.

There are only few people in Rome that are not familiar with the famous Boccione bakery in Rome's ancient ghetto, the bakery was established in 1555. Alongside a prominent local synagogue and Jewish schools, renowned for making traditional treats by hand for many years.

“One of the pope's doctors stopped by the bakery en route to administering a routine checkup of the pontiff and introduced the Kosher pastries the Pope,” recalled bakery owner Wilma Limentani.

“I guess he enjoyed the biscotti and 'Jewish pizza' (an almond-and-raisin confection),” noted Limenati who was recently surprised when he got a thank-you letter from the Vatican.

Those close to the pope recount that he loves deserts, and was particularly enamored with the almond and raisin confection desert, tinged with cinnamon and pine nuts, which Limenati affectionately called it “Jewish pizza”

“I think that the pope looks forward to the doctor’s visits ever since,” said Limenati, who informed the pontiff that the bakery adheres strictly to all of the laws of kashrut.

“We would never, ever use lard. All of our pastries are strictly kosher ,” she said as a long line of customers snakes its way into her store, hoping that the supply of “Jewish pizza” does not run out.

Ever since the papal endorsement, business has picked up at Bocciones Bakery with a lot of curious customers lining up to see just how good “Jewish pizza” really is.

Watch this 30 second video of a cute Gummy Bear dancing.

At Oh! Nuts you can get Gummy Bears and other Bulk Candy like Jelly Beans and Jordan Almonds for Weddings.

Chocolate May Reduce Pregnancy Complication Risk

Indulging in chocolate during pregnancy could help ward off a serious complication known as preeclampsia, new research suggests.

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is rich in a chemical called theobromine, which stimulates the heart, relaxes smooth muscle and dilates blood vessels, and has been used to treat chest pain, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries, Dr. Elizabeth W. Triche of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and colleagues write.

Preeclampsia, in which blood pressure spikes during pregnancy while excess protein is released into the urine, has many features in common with heart disease, the researchers add.

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.

A similar, but weaker, relationship between chocolate consumption and preeclampsia risk was seen in the first trimester, with women eating five or more servings of chocolate each week at 19 percent lower risk than those who ate chocolate less than once a week.

Theobromine could improve circulation within the placenta while blocking oxidative stress, or it could also be a stand-in for other beneficial chemicals found in chocolate, Triche and her team note in the May issue of Epidemiology.

"Our results raise the possibility that chocolate consumption by pregnant women may reduce the occurrence of preeclampsia," they write. "Because of the importance of preeclampsia as a major complication of pregnancy, replication of these results in other large prospective studies with a detailed assessment of chocolate consumption is warranted."

SOURCE: Epidemiology, May 2008.