A new study explained why women love chocolates.

A group of researchers from Italy analyzed the reactions of male fetuses and female fetuses after their mother ate chocolate. The test revealed that the females' reaction was stronger than males.

Andrea Tranquilli, lead author of the study from the University of Politecnica Marche in Ancona, Italy, said that since women were known to love chocolates, they wanted to know if the cravings were inborn or not.

100 pregnant women who near to their delivery date participated in the test. None of them had eaten chocolate for the past 90 days. Among participants, 46 of them were carrying female fetuses.

The team took measurements of the fetus' heart rates, accelerations, and movements before the test and compared the results 30 minutes after eating five pieces of dark chocolate.

Both fetuses reacted to the chocolate but the stimulation was more evident to female fetuses. There were more movements and accelerations in the heart rate. This proved those women's cravings for chocolate was inborn. On the other hand, only half of the male fetuses reacted on the chocolate.

There were also studies that says the hormones triggers the cravings during women's menstrual period but this was partly true because there were also studies that shows that women still craves for chocolate even during menopause.

Tranquilli's study also examined the reaction of the fetuses on the components of the chocolate. They didn't respond on the caloric and fat contents of the chocolate but showed varying reactions depending on the concentration of cocoa ingested by their mother. The darker the chocolate is, the higher the reaction. The test used a chocolate with 80 percent cocoa content.

The details of this study were published in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine.