Lovejuice

The power (or not) of aphrodisiacs

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Food and sex.

That’ll do it for this week’s cuisine section boys, wrap it up!

No, but it feels silly to talk about the two as if there needs to be analysis. Like a good meal or a good roll in the hay, vainly parsing the particulars only takes away from the alchemy that makes those things great. Food and sex are linked in our biology, our chemistry and our society.

They are, in short, fundamental and wonderful.

But there are some myths in need of dispelling about the power food can have in making sex better, and in making sex happen to begin with. That discussion concerns the aphrodisiac. From oysters to pomegranates to stews of rare animal penises, human cultures from time immemorial have turned to food for sexual enhancement. But what works, what’s a tall tale and how can we use food to improve our sexual encounters?

Let’s start with a definition. Named for the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation, Aphrodite, an aphrodisiac is any food or herb that increases libido. Common examples include oysters, dark chocolate, red wine and avocados. Looking at how those foods work might be the best way to actually define the aphrodisiac.

“Aphrodisiacs can work in many ways,” says Brigitte Mars, a Boulder herbalist and author of The Sexual Herbal. “One might be that they relax a person. They might also be super nourishing. They may also be somewhat suggestive to lend one’s thoughts to sexuality because of their shape, like a banana or an egg or something like that. They might also be energizing.”

Part of what contributes to the efficacy of food aphrodisiacs are the nutrients and vitamins they contain. Jenni Skyler, Ph.D., is a sex therapist who runs The Intimacy Institute in Boulder and says certain foods won’t inherently put you in the mood, but will help prompt the body to produce hormones that increase sexual desire.

“It’s not like you eat something and it goes directly to your genitals and you go, ‘I’m now extra aroused,’” Skyler says. “Like, red wine dilates, which means extra blood flow. Too much wine has the opposite affect, but just enough can help the blood flow. Oysters are common, they say, because they have a lot of zinc and zinc helps increase the production of testosterone. Testosterone is our sex drive hormone.”

To that end, you can just take a zinc tablet, Skyler says, even if that’s not the most romantic food — nor, clearly, the most romantic tablet.

So promoting increased blood flow and releasing hormones are the two main components of aphrodisiacs, both Skyler and Mars say. Any food that does that will help put the consumer’s physical body in a decent position to have sex. Mars says, however, that there are other foods that other cultures have used for centuries to help increase libido.

“I think of nuts and seeds because they are the reproductive portion of the plant,” Mars says. “You don’t plant a bowl of oatmeal to grow oat plants, you plant seeds. I think of nuts and seeds as great for sexual vitality, things like almonds and pine nuts and walnuts.

“I also think of eating more roots. Roots are really grounded. They grow deep in the earth. They help connect us to our lower chakras. Eating roots like rutabaga, and burdock and beets and carrots [help increase libido].”

Mars adds that fiery spices like cinnamon, cloves and pepper increase the sensitivity of the senses, and that black foods like chia seeds and black beans are high in minerals that promote sexual vitality. 

“The good news is that chocolate, cacao, is also considered a black food. It increases circulation, [and it is] high in magnesium, but of course you want to use high-quality chocolate, not bars of hydrogenated oils,” says Mars.

But Skyler brings up a much larger point about the efficacy of aphrodisiacs: You can get the same rush of hormones, blood flow and good vibes simply by living an active lifestyle and having a healthy relationship with your partner. Staying with cacao:

“They do actually say dark chocolate is the one that releases chemicals. It’s supposed to release feelings of wellbeing and excitement,” Skyler says. “But can you get that from your partner with a really juiced conversation or some awesome touching and foreplay? Yes.

“Someone going for a giant hike, if they feel really good at the end of that, they have all these endorphins and come home and have the same feeling that an aphrodisiac would give. An aphrodisiac could be sunshine or a big hike up Sanitas or a long run. It’s what releases that sense of good feeling, whether it’s an endorphin, dopamine or seratonin.”

The way a person views his or herself also affects sexual vitality, says Mars. By living a healthy lifestyle — and by extension, consuming foods that increase blood flow and release happymaking hormones — you not only put your body in a state that is ready for sex, but you also broadcast that to potential partners.

“The act of doing things that show ‘I’m taking good care of myself ’ is a great way of saying ‘I love myself,’ which is certainly enhancing your ability to be in a relationship to be with someone else,” says Mars. “[Saying] ‘I’m going to take the time to be healthy and be at a healthy weight and have energy,’ that makes us a more likely candidate to be in a sexual relationship and also being comfortable taking your clothes off in front of somebody that you love, hopefully.”

Skyler says that relationships have the biggest effect on libido. If you’re not comfortable with the person you’re planning to have sex with, if you’re not comfortable with yourself or if you have issues within the relationship, no aphrodisiac will have even the slightest effect on sex drive.

“Do aphrodisiacs make a direct causation to our increased sex drive? Not necessarily. If your relationship is still on the rocks, you can have all the aphrodisiacs in the world and still might not get to where you want to be going,” Skyler says. “Whoever is taking it has to have sort of a buy-in belief to it as well.”

Skyler says there’s also more to the sex-inducing qualities of some foods than the simple ingestion of them.

“Food is a shared experience and if you make it a shared sensual experience, that’s half the battle with aphrodisiacs,” Skyler says. “You can have dark chocolate fondue and make it sensual, or you can have a watermelon martini and make it sensual. A lot of these aphrodisiacs is how they are ingested with your partner that also create that libido rising. It’s all about desire.

“Desire is how you turn on the brain, arousal is how you turn on the body. Aphrodisiacs create more things in the body’s biology that help our neuro-transmitters and our blood flow, and that’s our arousal. How we ingest it can increase our desire and both are needed for having a fun sexual experience.”

Mars adds that there are numerous herbal supplements and aromatherapy options with essential oils that can prompt the benefits of aphrodisiacs in a new way.

“Using them in massage or in the bath or putting a drop in your bed or doing inhalations can affect our consciousness almost immediately,” Mars says. “Aromatherapy would be another venue so, smelling things would be helpful. Vitamin supplements, color, feng shui. … There’s many, many avenues, and it’s not just building sexuality, but overall health and happiness and wellbeing.”

So that seems to be the message here, folks: live healthy, eat foods that increase blood flow and release sex hormones, and work to have a good relationship with your partner. Do that, and we won’t come a-knockin’.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com