Valentine's Day - A Gift for the Heart

Versailles Chocolates
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It's Valentine's Day soon and one of the most traditional gifts is chocolate and perhaps a romantic meal with a bottle of wine. Not only are these likely to keep you high in the affections of your loved one, they are good for the heart too. Of course, thinking about preventing heart disease in connection with a Valentine's Day gift might not be romantic but it does show you care.

Melvyn Rubenfire, M.D., director of Preventive Cardiology at the University of Michigan says, "Chocolate has good antioxidants that are cardiac or vascular-protective."

These antioxidants, also known as flavonoids, are also found in fruits, vegetables, tea, and red and white wine, and they reduce the risk of blood clots and heart disease. The amount found in chocolate depends on the type. White chocolate has the least while good quality, dark chocolate has the most. It's usually seen as the sexiest too!

If your lover has a cough, according to a study at the Imperial College, London, England, chocolate can be effective in helping with that as well. Researchers there ran a study using theobromine, an ingredient present in chocolate, and found that it was much more effective at stopping a cough than codeine, the best cough medicine currently in use.

Professor Maria Belvisi, from Imperial College London and Royal Brompton Hospital, and one of the paper's authors, comments: "Not only did theobromine prove more effective than codeine, at the doses used it was found to have none of the side effects. Normally the effectiveness of any treatment is limited by the dosage you can give someone. With theobromine having no demonstrated side effects in this study it may be possible to give far bigger doses, further increasing its effectiveness.

Of course, the saying 'all things in moderation' must be heeded when it comes to chocolate. It is high in saturated fats and often in sugar too so don't eat the whole box in a single sitting. Make it last—not only is this better for your overall health, you will be able to enjoy the chocolates longer.

Now for the romantice meal. How about some smoked salmon, an avocado, both good for omega 3 oils, wholewheat bread for fibre and a glass or two of wine?

Wine is a good choice because of its high antioxidant content. “Moderate use of wine is pretty well demonstrated to be healthy for us, and of course makes us feel good,” says Dr Rubenfire of Michigan.

Again, moderate amount of alcohol can be good for our health while excessive drinking can be positively bad so don't overdo it.

So you can have a positively romantic and healthy Valentine's Day with traditional chocolates, a romantic dinner with wine and your partner will love you even more for it.

For chocolate recipes, visit All Info About Chocolate.

Copyright © 2005 - Carol Fisher