Is Chocolate the Way to Your Heart?

Note: What I’ve written about the Day of the Dead celebration is my understanding. If I have gotten anything wrong or caused any offense, my apologies, as that is certainly not my intent.

You may have heard the phrase, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” I certainly have, although I wouldn’t say it’s universally true. I suspect it depends on the man and the cooking, among many other things.

What I hadn’t heard is any similar phrase for women, so I was a bit startled when I read this in a Dove wrapper: “The fastest way to my heart is chocolate.”

Now, this isn’t necessarily meant only for women since men might enjoy good chocolate as well. However, the advertisements appear to be geared towards women, and on Valentine’s Day, the focus is on giving chocolate to women, not men.

Chocolate and love

At first, as I considered this phrase, it made me uncomfortable. After all, it perpetuates the connection between chocolate and love, which can cause problems with people’s relationship to chocolate and other foods.

Additionally, this seems to make other characteristics, such as kindness, emotional availability, and communication, take a back seat to chocolate.

But then I started to think about what chocolate symbolizes. Does it have some deeper significance that would trigger love or any other strong emotional response?

Indeed, food and caring are very closely linked, and the act of sharing or gifting food can be powerful. If it’s someone’s favorite chocolate, it could show that you’re paying attention and want to give something that would make her happy.

The gift of chocolate

One example of chocolate gifts during this time of year is the Mexican Day of the Dead. For this holiday, people make altars to celebrate the memory of their ancestors or more recent beloved dead. These include many food items that the deceased would have enjoyed, almost always including some form of chocolate, be it in a mole, hot cocoa, or chocolate skull. This is a way of the living showing their love and remembrance of the souls who will be visiting.

And then there’s a different twist to it. For someone like me, who has had a somewhat turbulent relationship with food, receiving chocolate as a gift can be a powerful experience. It could be a way of showing that they accept me, and my eating and enjoyment of chocolate, without judgment. From that perspective, such a gift would be touching.

Chocolate and caring

So while I’m not sure that I can blanketly agree with the statement that chocolate is a way to someone's heart, I will admit that in certain instances, the gift of chocolate can express caring, love, and acceptance.

That being said, it’s the deeper reasons behind the candy that give it such meaning, and without that, chocolate alone is certainly not the fastest way to my heart.