In honor of Valentine's Day this week, I thought that I would focus on some romantic posts. Or, possibly romantic.

Through www.lifescript.com I learned some of the amazing qualities of one of my favorite treats. Chocolate. Dark chocolate to be exact, although I love all types of chocolate. As a matter of fact, handmade dark chocolates are always on the top of my list for receiving on any holiday. As I'm writing this, I'd better leave the husband a little reminder of where he can purchase my favorite kind. I don't think that he would ever forget, but I am a huge fan of better safe than sorry.

A little bit of history first. The world renowned lover, Casanova was a big fan of chocolate. He would eat chocolate regularly and also drink hot chocolate as an aphrodisiac. Although Casanova didn't understand the science of it all way back then, we are now beginning to gain knowlege of why chocolate can help the libido. The following ingredients are helpful in understanding why chocolate is so pleasurable. And eating chocolate also helps with the release of endorphins that can add sensitivity to pleasurable activities.

• theobromine and caffeine help to stimulate and focus
• anandamide can copy the effects of marijuana by attaching to the brain's receptors
• phenylethylamine is released when eating cocoa and can bring on emotions of "attraction, excitement and giddiness"
• Tryptophan helps the brain make serotonin

Finishing up the article, the nutritionists are careful to mention that chocolate has a lot of calories, so it needs to be eaten in small amounts and also needs to be monitored for the actual cocoa content. This way, they say that dark chocolate is your best bet, with white chocolate and cocoa mixes having no actual cocoa content, should be very limited.

Dietician warnings aside, I am planning on enjoying any type of chocolate this Valentine's Day, regardless of the form that it comes in.