Chocolate is the ideal gift for Valentine's Day year after year, and with good reason, since there is more to chocolate than its sweet taste; it also has some health benefits.

According to experts, ingredients in chocolate are good for improving blood flow, insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, cholesterol and asthma.

Mark Guiltinan, professor of plant molecular biology, said that many people are attracted to chocolate because of its taste, but there are many benefits to eating chocolate.

The main thing is the polyphenol antioxidants, he said. They absorb free radicals that can damage DNA cells.

Guiltinan also said that chocolate could have an effect on cholesterol.

There is a ratio of good to bad cholesterol, he said. Chocolate can shift some of the bad ratio to good.

Chocolate has an effect on the vascular system because it can relax and open up capillaries to produce better blood flow, which reduces hypertension, Guiltinan said.

Greg Ziegler, associate professor of food and science, said another molecule in chocolate, theobromine, is related to caffeine and is a smoothing muscle relaxer.

"It is good for treating asthma or when you need to relax your muscles," Ziegler said.

Chocolate has been shown to increase nitric oxide, production in cells and blood vessel dilation, Penny Kris-Etherton, professor of nutrition, said.

"[Increased blood vessel dilation] is important for oxygen transport," Kris-Etherton said.

Kris-Etherton said that chocolate has favorable effects on blood pressure.

"Chocolate consumption prevents age-related increases in blood pressure," she said.

There is evidence that chocolate consumption improves insulin sensitivity, Kris-Etherton added.

The reason chocolate tastes so good is the ingredients.

"The main ingredients in dark chocolate are cocoa butter, cocoa and sugar," Kris-Etherton said. "In milk chocolate, butter fat is also present."

The cocoa ingredient is usually bitter tasting, Lynne Brown, associate professor of food science, said.

"It puckers your mouth a little," she said. "It's the sugar and fat you put into it to bring out the sweet mode."

Chocolate has a very complex flavor, because there are 415 molecules in the flavor compound of chocolate, Guiltinan said.

Chocolate can act as an aphrodisiac because the molecules can act like hormones and affect the way a person feels, he added.

However, there are no chemicals found in it to be an aphrodisiac, Ziegler said.

Chocolate has become a preferred Valentine's Day gift because it is a feel-good food and luxury.

Paul Jensen, owner of Chocolate Madness, 224 E. Calder Way, said that his store sells a lot of chocolate around Valentine's Day.

About 30 percent of sales for the year are just for Valentine's Day alone, he said.

Jensen added that although all types of chocolate are popular, chocolate-covered strawberries are always a top seller.

"Chocolate is associated with lusty things," Ziegler said. "It used to be rare and expensive so it used to mean that you have many resources [and extra money to give gifts]."

Jaclyn Sopko (junior-business management) said she doesn't really care what she gets for Valentine's Day, but she loves chocolate.

"It is kind of like a nice treat," she said.

Although chocolate is considered a luxury food, like all good things, it does possess some negatives.

Because chocolate is a muscle relaxer, it smoothes the esophagus muscles that can cause acid reflux when relaxed, Ziegler said.

Some of the ingredients in chocolate are not necessarily healthy. Sugar and butter are the ingredients we want to limit, Kris-Etherton said.

"In the U.S., the typical diet does not have much room for extra calories [discretionary calories]," she said. "On a 2,000 calorie diet, a person has 267 extra calories if the milk they consume is skim and they consume lean meats...267 calories is about one small candy bar."