Valentine’s Day

Gently poached shrimp in red curry over grains of fragrant, jasmine rice. Freshly shucked oysters served ocean-side with a glass of golden Sauternes. The meat of crushed cocoa pods steeped with flecks of chile and sweetened by sugar cane. Aphrodisiac foods have been celebrated by the greatest cultures in recorded history. Today, modern science is proving the nutritional validity of foods historically regarded as aphrodisiac.

A study completed in 2005 by a group of Italian and American scientists inadvertently discovered that a rare amino acid raised sexual hormone levels in rats. The study was investigating the amino acids of a Mediterranean variety of mussels and the sexual health discovery was simply a sideline of the group’s true goals.

People around the world continue to define culinary delights as aphrodisiacs. Some foods earn their title for their ability to produce an immediate physiological effect on the body. Chile peppers, for instance, have been used as aphrodisiacs throughout the Americas and Asia for centuries for their ability to raise body temperature and bring a blush to the cheeks similar to a sexual flush. Ginger, another warming spice, can make the eater’s tongue tingle with anticipation and lips plump to proportions that could meet any Angelina Jolie fantasy.

Thanks to the work of two rather quirky figures in the world of science, we now know that the mere scents of some foods can evoke sexual arousal. In the late 1990’s, Dr. Alan Hirsch of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago completed a study in which food aromas caused sexual arousal in subjects in both waking and sleeping states. The most successful scent tested in the study to tempt men was a combination of pumpkin pie spice and lavender. For women, it was cucumbers and Good and Plenty candies.

In a series of slightly less formal studies, Dr. Max Lake, an MD and vintner from Australia’s Hunter Valley, discovered similarities between the scents of certain foods and the aromas of human pheromones. In his book Scents and Sensuality, Dr. Lake describes the aromas of some Blanc de Blanc Champagnes as well as ripe cheeses as being startlingly similar to female pheromones. If you look at the nutritional makeup of most foods celebrated as aphrodisiacs throughout the course of history, you will find ingredients rich with vitamins and nutrients essential to a healthy libido. We now know that oysters, the most clichéd of all aphrodisiac foods, contain that aforementioned amino acid that promises to raise sexual hormone levels to new heights. But they are also an excellent and easily digestible source of zinc, an ingredient that promotes blood flow to the body’s every region.

Other nutrients that work to embellish your sexual self include – but are not limited to – vitamin C, iodine, omega 3’s and magnesium.

Many ingredients probably became known as aphrodisiacs because of their ability to provide sustained energy. Lean proteins like wild boar, fish and fowl give the body energy while foods with natural sugars and caffeine can give the body a surge of energy when it is needed most. This explains the aphrodisiac reputation of decidedly un-sexy ingredients like yams and beets, as well as that of some of the food world’s sexiest players.

We now know that certain foods can trigger chemical reactions in the brain to send a flood of happy hormones through the body. Chocolate for instance. As more and more secrets of the brain are unlocked, it is very likely that we will discover a dazzling array of foods with abilities to balance mood, invoke romance and trigger sexual desire.