Aphrodisiacs: Food and Sex

By -



As Valentine's Day is approaching, our attention turns to the sensual side of our senses. Ackerman states on page 130, “Sexual hunger and physical hunger have always been allies.” Restaurants are currently preparing their menus full of foods to be served called aphrodisiacs. Newspapers and magazines are publishing articles about what to whip up for your loved one in the kitchen this February 14th with tips on using aphrodisiacs to set the mood. Foods like oysters, champagne, asparagus, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, bananas, avocados, blowfish, eels, cucumber, tomatoes, honey, coffee, cinnamon, chilies, ginger, garlic, figs, caviar, chocolate, and the list goes on. Aphrodisiacs have been used throughout history from Elizabethan brothels offering prunes to Marquis de Sade lacing his bon bons with spanish fly that he served to his friends and prostitutes, reported by Ackerman on page 131. But what makes these rumored foods so sexual and what exactly are they doing to our bodies?  
One idea why food is considered to be so sexual, is its shape. Just the mere structure of these aphrodisiacs alone might get our minds thinking subconsciously about sex. Phallic shaped foods like bananas, leeks, and asparagus are all praised as aphrodisiacs, as well as vaginal reminiscently shaped oysters and figs. Ackerman also argues these aphrodisiacs are physical as well since we ingest food with our mouths. Since we humans use the mouth so often in a sexual way, it is no wonder why we see food as sensual. Most courting between partners happens with dates, usually having a theme of having food at restaurants. To most people, a very romantic gesture is when a partner cooks for them or buys them chocolates. Our culture is very centered around romance and food.

There is little scientific evidence to support if any of these foods are actually aphrodisiacs. Besides foods, such a spicy peppers, that cause enhanced bodily sensations, most foods cannot be backed up by science to actually say they have any effect on sexual performance. So even though this Valentine's Day those chocolate covered strawberries might not help in bed, it’s still the thought that counts, right?

Comments

  1. Maia WhiteFebruary 7, 2015 at 6:21 AM

    I really enjoyed reading this! This interconnectedness between food and romance makes me wonder where our culture ever got the term "date" meaning taking someone out. Could it be related to the fruit?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausFebruary 12, 2015 at 7:24 AM

    After reading about Song of Songs, what do you think? E.g., "I went down to the walnut garden, to see the new green by the brook, to see if the vine had budded, if the pomegranate trees were in flower." (6:11) Maybe we should be "going out on 'walnuts' or 'pomegranates' instead of dates. ;-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The most primitive sense

By -
Image
Smell the Flowers by Kirsten Star Smell, to me, is the most primitive sense. When most mammals are born, they immediately can recognize their mother’s smell and form an attachment to that smell. Mammals like puppies are almost entirely limited to only the sense of smell until they develop more of their other senses. The sense of smell also becomes the most primitive when considering humans and the phenomenon of perfume. For years, humans hunted certain animals for the purpose of obtaining the musk produced in the anal gland. This musk in small doses can act as an aphrodisiac when put into a perfume even though it has incredibly primitive origins. Though most of Western culture has an aversion to smells considered gross or undesirable, the wealthiest of women are still willing to pay heavy prices to spray a smell once obtained from the anal glands of other animals. The sense of smell is not something that humans can control and adjust but rather it is only changed by evolution over
Read more

Cannibalism and Symbolism

By -
Symbolism plays an important role in religious ceremonies because people cannot have the divine being where they want him all the time. So they start creating ways to be in touch with God. Such as in Christianity, eating bread is symbolized to be eating God-made flesh. There are similar rituals in Judaism where they eat the food of God. A big difference between taste and the other senses is that the object that is being sensed is internalized, whereas all the other senses use an external sensation. Taste cannot extend anywhere like the other senses can. This allows the humans to have no barrier between the divine (symbolized as food) and themselves. This is the closest they can get to God, but internalizing Him.  This thought of getting the closest they can to someone by ingesting and gaining power from it led my mind to wander to the thought of serial killers that also happen to be cannibals. I know that it might be a stretch, but there are some similarities. I als
Read more

Wrap-Up Post

By -
Image
Alright, let’s tie this up in a nice little bow. I genuinely did not know what to expect coming into this class. The extent of my knowledge of the senses comes from elementary school when we had to make it a little song to get the information through our tiny heads. Beyond that, everything seemed pretty cut and dry. We have five senses. We need to use all of them to survive. It’s as simple as that. I did not know how there was enough to talk about the senses to fill an entire college course, especially one specifically regarding the relationship between the senses and religion. But the fact that we were barely able to fit all the content in before the semester ended proves just how wrong I was. Let’s talk about why that is and what some of the things I learned were. First off, even the most basic assumption about the senses, that there are five of them, was questioned immediately. The sixth sense may not have been as clearly defined as the other senses, but there was certainly a lot to
Read more