But the trouble doesn’t stop there. With Valentine’s being the busiest night to eat out of the year, bad dining decisions will be cluttering the menus of America this Thursday, tempting you to eat yourself into a food coma and out of a wild night with your partner.
This year, you have two options: You can eat haphazardly and absorb 2,000 calories during dinner and end your night before it ever really begins, or you can indulge smartly, cut your total intake in half, and tap into Mother Nature’s most potent passion-stoking treats along the way.
David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, co-authors of the runaway bestseller Eat This, Not That!, show you how to do just that, providing you with the smart food choices and surprising tips to ensure that this is your healthiest, and hottest, Valentine’s Day ever.
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Eat this
Dark chocolate (2 ounces)
290 calories
22 g sugar
Not that!
White chocolate (2 ounces)
350 calories
30 g sugar
White chocolate isn't chocolate at all. In fact, in contains exactly 0 percent cacao, which means it contains none of the libido-boosting, feel-good chemicals found in dark chocolate. Instead, white chocolate producers sub in a troubling mix of hydrogenated oil and sugar and pass it off as the real thing. When it comes to chocolate, the darker the better, so look for bars with at least 60 percent cacao. Our favorite is Chocolove Rich Dark, which packs 65 percent of the good stuff.
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Eat this
Raw bar appetizer for two (clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp, crab with lemon, and cocktail sauce)
175 calories (each)
8 g fat
Not that!
Crab cake with aioli
400 calories
25 g fat
Just because it’s crab doesn’t mean it’s healthy, especially when the innocent crustacean is attacked by mayo, breadcrumbs, and a fryer full of bubbling oil. Take the seafood au naturel (or maybe with just a squirt of lemon juice or a dip of cocktail sauce), and you’ll benefit from a low-fat, high-protein treat loaded with sperm-boosting, libido-stoking zinc and mood-brightening omega-3 fatty acids. Plus, you share it and you eat it with your hands — what could be better on Valentine's?
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Eat this
Lamb chops with sautéed Swiss chard
550 calories
25 g fat
Not that!
Pasta primavera
900 calories
50 g fat
65 g carbs
Don’t be fooled by the vegetables. Most primavera renditions start with butter and finish with heavy cream and cheese. But the real offender here is the pasta itself. If you’re looking to progress past dinner tonight, avoid refined carbohydrates, such as pasta, breads and cake, at all costs. These burn quickly, which spikes blood sugar. Besides setting both men and women up for an energy crash, a blood sugar spike also creates a surge of insulin, which raises blood pressure. And high blood pressure is the enemy of sturdy, reliable erections.
Instead, eat complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables like Swiss chard, which also has the benefit of being one of nature’s best sources of potassium, a potent stress reducer — which is a great way to curb performance anxiety later that night. Top that with a few lamb chops and you’ll be in good shape for a long night.
Besides being surprisingly lean, lamb packs plenty of protein, which boosts production of dopamine and norepinephrine, hormones that increase alertness and assertiveness in the bedroom. It's also a great source for zinc — a mineral that boosts libido by reducing your body's production of a hormone called prolactin, which may interfere with arousal.
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Eat this
Chocolate fondue with strawberries and banana
250 calories
18 g fat
Not that!
Cheesecake with raspberry sauce
1,000 calories
65 g fat
Dessert may be the most pivotal decision of the night, since choosing poorly means a ton of excess calories and sugar and none of the rewards you reap from a smart decision. Case in point: chocolate fondue. British scientists have discovered that women release four times more endorphins after eating chocolate than they do after making out.
Plus, the cocoa in chocolate contains methylxanthines, stimulants that increase your body's sensitivity—ensuring that your skin registers even the slightest touch or movement against it. Strawberries are packed with anthocyanins, a powerful antioxidant that helps with bloodflow below the belt. Raspberries have them too, but the sauce that comes with your huge hunk of fatty cheesecake is likely cloaked in sugar, with only a few token berries floating around. At 1,000 calories for the whole package, you’d be better off eating three ice cream sundaes then going fork-to-mouth with this gut-bomb.
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Drink this
Glass of champagne
130 calories
Cosmo
150 calories
18 g sugar
Not that!
Margarita
700 calories
50 g sugar
When it comes to drinking and romance, a slight buzz can work well to build confidence and increase arousal signals between your brain and your genitals, but too much sugar and booze will actually depress your nervous system, making it harder for men to maintain an erection (and women to maintain interest).
Most margaritas made in bars and restaurants are 90 percent premixed solution, which gets its nuclear green glow not from an abundance of fresh lime juice, but from high-fructose corn syrup and food coloring. All of that sugar will work to give you a quick jolt of energy, but will eventually team up with the tequila to bring you crashing down (which could easily compromise dessert back at your place). Cosmos, on the other hand, are made with a bit of restraint and healthier mixers—a splash of cranberry, a squeeze of fresh citrus—which keep the calories down and your energy up. Or save more than 550 calories and load up on heart-healthy antioxidants (vital for effective bloodflow) by opting for a glass of bubbly.
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