November… a time for eating, drinking, being with family and friends. Sharing and enjoying life. Thinking about the upcoming holidays and what fun toys and gifts you will be buying and hopefully, receiving. Ho, ho, ho!

And let’s not forget about Thanksgiving and the eating frenzy that begins the end of November and continues through the end of the year.

Food… warm, inviting, comforting, satisfying. Sound familiar?

Perhaps there’s more of a relationship between food and sex than you might think… maybe this holiday season, it’s time to put the two together. You wouldn’t be the first, you know!

Food can act as an aphrodisiac on several levels – one, the psychological level (remember “9-1/2 Weeks”?), and two, the physiological level. Some foods may turn us on just by their look, smell, texture and/or taste. Example: oysters, strawberries, bananas. And then there are foods containing certain vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc., known to trigger the release of chemicals or hormones in our bodies that may affect our sexual appetite or stamina. For example, foods rich in nitric oxide, amino acids, anti-oxidants, zinc and B6 are said to be good “sex foods”… shellfish, veggies, berries, turkey, just to name a few.

Chocolate anyone?

When I think of the upcoming holidays, I think about all that chocolate I will be getting and giving! But besides the great taste, does chocolate have any other redeeming qualities? Apparently so…

From www.globalchefs.com… “Chocolate contains substances called Phenylethylamine and Serotonin, both of which (put simply), are mood lifting agents found naturally in the human brain. They are released into the nervous system by the brain when we are happy and when we are experiencing feelings of love, passion or lust. This causes rapid mood change, a rise in blood pressure and increasing heart rate, inducing those feelings of well being, bordering on euphoria usually associated with being in love. Eating chocolate also releases Phenylethylamine and Serotonin into the system producing those same euphoric effects, plus it can give a substantial energy boost thus increasing stamina (at the critical moment?), so it's probably these effects which gave rise to chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac.” (For the entire article, please go to: http://www.globalchefs.com/article/archive/art058afrocho.htm.)

Sounds promising! Sex, food, chocolate, sex! The possibilities are endless!

There are numerous books, as well as online articles, on food and sex. Searching the web, I found quite a few, including, “The Sex Life of Food” by Bunny Crumpacker, “Great Food, Great Sex” by Robert Fried, Ph.D. and Lynn Edlen-Nezin, Ph.D., “Foods for Fabulous Sex” by Dr. Morton Walker. And I’m sure there are many others. Interesting reading and yummy recipes too!

So what will be on your Thanksgiving Day menu? Turkey, berries, chocolate… sex?

This will be my last column for 2006. How can I think about sex when I’m busy cooking turkey and watching “It’s A Wonderful Life” or “Bells of St Mary”? Okay, I CAN think about sex. I’m just too crazed to sit down and write about it! HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM BLISSABLE.COM!!

Lauren Meister is President of Blissable.com
and writer of the new column, Sex in the 21st C

Add this article to MoSexIndex