Chocolate is often maligned as a health food and even more so as an aphrodisiac. Sarah Kershaw’s anti-aphrodisiac article is page one all over the Internet, and that’s too bad.

Working now on a scientific response to New York Times writer Kershaw’s The Hunt for an Edible Equivalent of Viagra, where she dismisses chocolate as a love potion — along with the entire notion of aphrodisiacs — Science Daily delivers breaking news of chocolate significantly lowering our risk of stroke.

Anne of Carversville’s interest in sexy food is driven by the science, not only folklore, so we bristle when writers blow off the idea of what ends up being a very sexy and healthy diet that’s truly good for your libido, your sexual enjoyment and also your health and wellbeing.

We aren’t saying that there’s any food that has the impact of Viagra 30 minutes after swallowing. Nor are we discounting the possibility. We do believe that America’s always looking for the bullet-point, quick-fix pill. Science documents that fact in countless studies.

The healthy-diet effect is just one more aspect of sexuality that America refuses to take seriously.

Presumably, if we eat healthy foods that make us more sensual and healthy, we will all run amok in some giant sex orgy.

Chocolate gets a bad rap in  The Hunt for an Edible Equivalent of Viagra.

There is another issue with the Black Forest — and the gazillions of other forms of chocolate that will be consumed this weekend: chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac is highly exaggerated, food researchers say. Romantic and deeply pleasurable, yes, especially because of its tendency to melt in the mouth at body temperature. And yes, it does contain some chemicals like phenylethylamine, which produce feelings of euphoria. Yet one widely cited study showed that a 130-pound person would have to eat 25 pounds of chocolate in one sitting to significantly alter the mood. But who would be in the mood after eating 19.2 percent of her weight in chocolate?

What food researchers? We have no sources. Trying to find the ‘widely cited study’ referencing eating 25 pounds of chocolate in one sitting, altering the mood had to do with how much chocolate one must eat to have a marijuana high. Ten sources confirm this interpretation of the ‘widely-cited study’.