Here's a free-association test. I'm going to name a holiday, and you're going to name the first thing to eat that comes to mind.

Ready? Valentine's Day.

That's right, chocolate is your final answer. But it's not exactly the question that breaks the bank on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The real question is: Why chocolate? Is it an accident that this food, called the food of love by some and the food from hell by others (probably for similar reasons), is the delicacy most associated with the day of the year on which we celebrate love and romance?

Some people don't think so. There may in fact be many biochemical reasons for the attraction to chocolate. Understanding these reasons can help you get a handle on your relationship with chocolate and help you decide how much chocolate belongs in your future.

For one thing, chocolate contains PEA, a chemical thought to be very similar to chemicals released in the brain when people fall in love. It also contains magnesium, which by some estimates is deficient in over 75 percent of all women. In addition, the sugar content of chocolate raises serotonin levels, making it a kind of natural Prozac.

But probably most important, according to experts like Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D., author of The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program, chocolate (and sugar in general) raises levels of critical brain chemicals called beta endorphins. Beta endorphins are responsible for "runners high" -- they're painkillers, released when the body thinks they're needed (like after pounding the pavement for five hours during a marathon). People who have low amounts of beta endorphins are much more likely to become "sugar addicts." They will eat anything that normalizes the levels of this brain chemical.