Eat More Chocolate?

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.

Whether you're susceptible to addictions or not, you always have some choice in the matter. Perhaps chocolate doesn't have a particularly impossible-to-resist siren song for you, you don't have the brain chemistry of an addict, you have a certain amount of control over food, but you're trying to lose weight and don't want to blow your eating program just because it's Valentine's Day. If that's you, relax. For you, the term "moderation" actually makes sense. You are one of those lucky people who really can "just eat one." You can have a taste, and you don't obsess for the rest of the day about finishing the box. To you I say: Get the richest, most delicious, expensive gourmet chocolate you can find, and have a ball. (If you're going to indulge, why not get the best? And why ruin it with useless guilt and remorse? You'll be back on target tomorrow, and, truth be told, the amount of long-term damage will be minimal to none).

But even if the portrait of the addict seems to fit you like a glove, you still have a choice. What you need to know is that foods don't always affect you like other people. You may react with mood swings, unstoppable cravings, even ups and downs in self-esteem. For you, the idea of "just a little" is a lot more dangerous. You may still decide to go there -- but you may have to pay a slightly bigger price, and the road back may be a little more rocky.

So, chocolate on Valentine's Day? The answer depends on the cost to you, and that in turn depends on knowing which type of chocolate eater you are. The good news is that everything you learn about yourself and your relationship to food makes you a more powerful person.

And even powerful people with cravings for chocolate can make smart and powerful choices.

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