Chocolate and Valentine's Day

Ah, Valentine's Day- the one time of the year where men buy more chocolate than women.

What's so special about chocolate? Why do lovers send a chocolate heart for Valentine's Day, instead of, say vanilla cookies or strings of licorice?

To put it simply, chocolate makes you feel good. The chemicals found in chocolate activate brain receptors that give you feelings of well-being and pleasure. That is why people associate chocolate with love. If you would like a more complicated explanation, we've got you covered.

Romantic lore commonly identifies chocolate as an aphrodisiac. The reputed aphrodisiac qualities of chocolate are most often associated with the simple sensual pleasure of its consumption. Additionally, chocolate's sweet and fatty nature may stimulate the hypothalamus, inducing pleasureable sensations as well as affecting the levels of serotonin.

While serotonin has a pleasurable effect, in high concentrations it can be converted to melatonin which in large amounts reduces sexual drive.Finally, chocolate has been shown to contain unsaturated N-acylethanolamines which might activate cannabinoid receptors or increase endocannabinoid levels resulting in heightened sensitivity and euphoria.Although there is no firm proof that chocolate is indeed an aphrodisiac, a gift of chocolate is a familiar courtship ritual.  

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