A few things come to mind during Valentine’s Day: Cupid’s arrow, flowers, first dates, and anniversaries, and of course, chocolate. Year in, year out, chocolate sales around Monday’s holiday reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars, making it a tempting opportunity to put those new year’s diet resolutions on hiatus.
Gallery: The 22 Unhealthiest Chocolate Desserts
When consumed moderately, even the most decadent chocolate treat can be diet-tolerable. Many high-end organic chocolates will only set you back around 200 calories per serving. And the darker the chocolate, the better, as dark chocolate is rich in beneficial flavonoids and antioxidants.
But for those watching their waistlines this Valentine’s Day, a heart-shaped box isn’t the only place to fall off the wagon. The real chocolate-filled pitfall may well come after dinner. The Daily Beast ranked the 22 highest-calorie, chocolate-laden desserts from 19 national chain restaurants, with equal weighting on the four nutritional categories available for each dessert: calories, saturated fat, sodium, and carbohydrates. The calorie cutoff: 700, or thereabouts. Flowers, by the way, are fat-free.