Strawberries are absolutely loaded with vitamin C. They have lots of manganese and are a good source of dietary fiber.

A surprise ingredient is iodine which is essential for thyroid health. An under active thyroid has a number of symptoms from feeling tired, to weight gain and worse.

They are rich in phenols; phenols exist in many fruit in various amounts, but are particularly high in strawberries. The phenols in strawberries are actually what give them their red color.

The phenols in strawberries are known to assist in heart health and are effective anti-cancer antioxidants.

A simple but romantic recipe to share with your lover
Strawberries are also considered an aphrodisiac. There is something romantic about strawberries, maybe it’s their shape and beautiful red color that reminds us of a heart, or maybe it’s their incredible fragrance. As chocolate is also considered a romantic luxury why not try out the following desert?

For extra antioxidant chocolate POW, buy an organic 75% (range) dark chocolate, its lower in calories and much high in antioxidant value.

Also consider buying fair trade - its the right thing to do!

Put a heat proof bowl in a pan that has an inch of water in the bottom, you want one that fits just nicely, so that it’s caught by the edges of the pan and does NOT touch the bottom of the pan when placed on top.

Heat the water and put the chocolate the bowl, the chocolate will quickly melt.

Wash the strawberries, but don’t bother to remove the little leafy top – it actually looks quite cute left on.

Once the chocolate has just melted, dip each strawberry – about 2/3rds of it into the chocolate and then place it on a clean flat surface for the chocolate to set. It will mostly set quite quickly, then they can be transferred to the fridge for when your ready to serve desert.

Serve them up on a single big plate (assuming you made a lot of these!!), garnish with mint leaves, and then feed them to each other.

When in season, by locally grown strawberries, look for some organic ones. Their flavor and aroma is typically must more potent, many of the extra large imported ones seem to lack flavor.

A great idea for a romantic meal's desert on valentines day.