Lemondrop

A recent Stress in America survey found that 47 percent of adults polled had a tendency to lay awake at night, well, stressing. This Valentine's Day, we'll spend $1 billion on treats -- 75 percent of which will be made of chocolate. So what do these two seemingly unrelated factoids have to do with one another? Apparently, everything.

The results of a recent clinical trial conducted in Switzerland prove it: Volunteers who considered themselves "highly stressed" were asked to eat 1.4 ounces of dark chocolate (anything with a cocoa content of 70 percent or higher) every day for two weeks. By the end of the study, their stress-hormone levels and fight-or-flight hormones, called catecholamines, had both dipped, thanks to all those antioxidant-rich flavonoids packed into dark chocolate.

Although it's known to be heart-healthy, this is the first time that research has linked chocolate to mental well being in humans. So break open that heart-shaped box and relax -- chocolate actually is good for you.

Liz Ozaist is an editor and writer in Brooklyn, N.Y., and has never met a piece of chocolate -- light or dark -- she doesn't like."