The Foods of Love
Find the food that puts you in the mood. At one time or another, almost every food stuff has been considered THE food of love. It seems a primal instinct of humans to search for an aphrodisiac.
by
Mike
Moore
It seems a primal instinct of humans to search for an aphrodisiac. At one time or another, almost every food stuff has been considered THE food of love. The problem is, every time science has put a reputed aphrodisiac to the test, it has failed.
In Aphrodisiacs: The Science of Myth (Univ. Pa.; 1985), Peter V. Tabener lists some 500 foods considered aphrodisiacs, including camel's milk, goat's eye, weasel ashes and dried frog. If you're not ready to eat goat's eye, why not try rhinoceros horn?
The chief threat to that species' survival is a human penchant to believe rhinoceros horn makes better lovers. The poor rhinoceros, one of the ugliest of beasts, is a victim of mistaken identity. It has the woeful fate of being the animal kingdom's only one-pronged animal. One horn? It must be the fabled unicorn. You know the magical powers they possess. Let's kill it and eat the horn. In scientific fact, rhinoceros horn is pretty unappetizing stuff: a hardened, fibrous tissue, chemically similar to hair. Pass me the goat's eye, please.
Chung Yao Chic ("New Chinese Materia Medica") lists cinnamon, juniper berries, nutmeg, ginseng, and cherry as aphrodisiacs. But it also lists "strychnos nux vomica", which is the source of the highly toxic central nervous system stimulant, strychnine.
Indeed, a number of reputed aphrodisiacs are poisonous. Hemlock, for instance. Or arsenic. At various times, it was believed arsenic was an aphrodisiac, a cure for syphilis, a way to keep a woman's skin young-looking, and an anti-carcinogen. But taken even in small doses, it can kill you eventually.
Other reputed aphrodisiacs are simply dangerous. M. Lawrence Lieberman notes in The Sexual Pharmacy that some "herbs, spices and volatile oils" irritate the urinary tract, mimicking sexual desire. But at the risk of bodily harm. The liqueur absinthe was considered an aphrodisiac, too, before it was proved to rot the mind.
But not all reputed aphrodisiacs are so hard to swallow. The Romans considered the truffle to be one. The emperor Claudius, forced into a ridiculous marriage to Messalina, fortified himself with truffles on his wedding night and surprised Rome by satisfying her. Much later, the French gastronome Anthelme Brillat-Savarin concluded, "The truffle is not at all a proved aphrodisiac; but it can, on certain occasions, make women tender and men more loving." The Kama Sutra suggests milk and honey do the trick.
Chocolate has long possessed potent powers, according to some believers. Casanova supposedly gulped it down hungrily. Some fanatics say M&Ms are aphrodisiacs -- the green ones. A rival actually tried to market a knock-off based on the green one's reputation.
Saffron, caviar, champagne, lobster and pheasant all make the list. But so do ants, cod liver oil, sea-slugs and the necks of snails (who knew they have necks?)
To the playwright who knew most about love, a sweet potato was just the right thing to feed your sweet patootie. In a bawdy scene in "The Merry Wives of Windsor", Falstaff begs for potatoes to fall from the sky. The white potato, introduced in Europe by Sir Walter Raleigh, was virtually unknown to Shakespeare's audience. But they did know about the powers of the sweet potato. The leading scientific minds confirmed it. In A Compendyous Regyment on a Dietary of Health, Andrewe Boorde, physician and bishop, wrote of the sweet potato: "When they be almost rype, they must be soden (boiled) tender in the broth of befe, and after eate them at dyner, they both increase nature and doth provoke a man to veneryous actes."
Modern science confirms the following. Chocolate, which tastes so good it doesn't have to do anything else, contains phenylethylamine, a naturally occurring substance in the brain that seems to elevate the mood. Oysters are rich in zinc and studies link zinc deficiencies in males to lower sperm counts. And fire-hot chili peppers seem to trigger the release of endorphins, the brain chemicals of well-being. Intriguing research, but it's not quite solid evidence.
Shakespeare got it right in "Twelfth Night", which begins with a metaphor: "If music be the food of love, play on." Atmosphere will probably get your romantic motor running a lot faster than food.
APHRODISIACS Foods that have been considered aphrodisiacs range from A to Z. Here are some of them. Allspice Almonds Anchovy Anise Apple Avocado Beans Broccoli Cabbage Carrot Crab Curry Dates Dill Duck Endive Fennel Garlic Ginger Goose Ham Intestines Jasmine Kidney Lamb Lion Fat Lizard Lotus Flower Melon Mustard Nuts Oatmeal Paprika Quince Radish Shrimp Tomato Udders Vanilla Wheat Germ Yogurt Zucchini
The Foods of Love