The Skinny On Valentine’s Day Candy

Speaking as, what I like to think of as, a fairly health conscious person I love it when I have an occasion to give myself permission to indulge in confections, so here I go again, weeeee! No Valentine’s Day in my opinion is complete without candies. I can tell you this though, if your sweetheart is weight conscious a small er box might be better unless you expect her to share.

Here are some interesting facts about your favorite candy you may not be aware of:

• When it comes to confectionery purchases during holidays, Valentine’s Day is placed in the fourth spot after Halloween, Easter and Christmas.
• At least 75 percent of Valentine’s Day candy purchases consist of chocolate sales.
• About 40 million heart-shaped chocolate boxes are expected to be sold for Valentine’s Day this year.
• Caramel-flavored chocolates are the favorite ones in a Valentine’s Day chocolate box. Chocolate-covered nuts were a close second. Personally I like the caramel and nut combined!
• Approximately 83 percent of Americans share candies with their friends and family on Valentine’s Day. Post Valentine's Day mine come to work with me for my co-workers to help with the caloric load.
• 69 percent of Americans prefer chocolate over flowers on Valentine’s Day. Well, YEAH!
• The legendary conversation hearts, Sweethearts, were first made by the New England Confectionery Company in the year 1866. About  8 billion of these are manufactured each year at this time.
• While the New England Confectionery Company spends 11 months producing the conversation hearts, they are all sold within six weeks. Makes sense.
• Every year, 10 new conversation-heart sayings are introduced. Some of the latest sayings include “Tweet Me” and “LOL.”
• Richard Cadbury created the world’s first heart-shaped candy box for Valentine’s Day in the year 1861.

On a side note, candy won't be the only thing we pony up for for this occasion. When love is in the air and cupid has those cash registers ringing. The average person who celebrates Valentine’s Day is expected to shell out about $142 to show their affection this week. Sweets and flowers remain the go-to Valentine’s Day gifts. More than half of us will buy candy, 37 percent will give flowers and more than a third plan a special night out with dinner and a movie. One in five will buy jewelry. Clothing and gift cards are also popular. And by clothing I am they mean lingerie. Total it all up and we could spend a record $18.9 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts this year. Shazam!