There may well be another important reason for giving your sweetheart chocolate for Valentine’s Day besides the traditional romantic one: The “chocolate cure” for emotional stress is now getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research. It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Daily dark chocolate also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.

Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances (such as polyphenols) in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Studies also suggest that chocolate may ease emotional stress, and thus help biologically with stress management. Until now, however, there was little evidence from research in humans on exactly how chocolate (or cocoa that has not been “Dutch-processed” with alkali) might have those stress-relieving effects.

In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists report regarding dark chocolate intake and stress reduction (Newswise).