They symbolise spring and rebirth, synonymous with the religious tradition of Easter.
According to Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat in her food tome A History Of Food, the practice of distributing eggs during Easter was first documented in the 15th century.
It was also the period that Christians could eat eggs again after the Lenten fast. Eggs thus became a highlight of Easter meals and a prized gift for children.
These days, however, most of the Easter eggs we eat are made with chocolate, which should be eaten in moderation. However, if you are buying some, make sure they are made of good chocolate - that means the darker the better and minus preservatives.
Chocolate that is high in cocoa content is loaded with epicatechin, said Dr Mary Engler of the University of California, San Francisco, who conducted a study with her colleagues last year.
Epicatechin is a particularly active member of a group of compounds called plant flavonoids. Flavonoids keep cholesterol from gathering in blood vessels, reduce the risk of blood clots and slow down the immune responses that lead to clogged arteries, the group reported in the Journal Of The American College Of Nutrition.
In an earlier study reported in the journal Nature in 2003, Dr Mauro Serafini of Italy's National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome said that dark chocolate - but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk - is a potent antioxidant. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals or destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.
