So what is an aphrodisiac anyway? Does such a thing really exist? What does it do?
Clearly, with Valentine`s Day upon us, we all have the right-indeed, obligation-to know. After all, ignorance about such matters could be perilous. Biochemists, psychopharmacologists, psychiatrists and other scientists remain skeptical that oysters, chocolate, caviar or anything else can enhance desire.
But seek out poets, witches, sex therapists, Chinese herbalists and others, and a very different picture comes to light. Indeed, the more one learns about aphrodisiacs, the harder they are to deny.
And on this most festive of days for romance, when even the most timid of suitors wax florid with declarations of passion, the most ardent skeptic might well pay heed.
”An aphrodisiac,” pronounced Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the omnipresent sex therapist, who attests to success with chestnut puree, ”is anything you think it is.”
Let`s face it, talk of aphrodisiacs goes back a long time. Just think of Adam and Eve and that very first illustrious lure: the apple.
Chowder and M&M`s
Whether it has been in magic potions (remember Tristan and Isolde), fairy dust, Cupid`s arrows, secret pills, spinach (don`t forget Popeye said it made him ”good to the finich”), conch chowder (James Bond), green M&M`s (that`s the word among youngsters today) or seductive spices (Keats), the powers of aphrodisiacs have permeated literature and mythology, sex manuals and fantasies for as long as time itself.
If there were no truth to these magical concoctions, wouldn`t we all by now have given up?
”What`s interesting from my perspective,” said Randolph Cornelius, an associate professor at Vassar College who teaches the psychology of romantic love, ”is that their effect comes from people`s belief in them.”
Clearly, whether an aphrodisiac works and what it specifically does has a lot to do with what one wants it to.
”If you are a man, you might like a woman who cooks chicken soup like your mother,” offered Mark Friedman, who studies taste and smell at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. He explained that for certain individuals the taste of chicken soup might in itself elicit feelings of love. Helen Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, which has been promoting aphrodisiacs for 25 years, suggests another potion.
”Two warm bodies and one cold bottle of champagne will produce something more wonderful than would happen without the champagne,” she said.
Where you put it
For others it is not what is served, but rather the entire setting. ”I don`t think there is any greater aphrodisiac than a beautifully orchestrated dinner,” said Leo Buscaglia, author of ”Bus Nine to Paradise.”
”A beautifully cooked pasta, an elegant lamb roast, a lovely glass of beautiful wine, an aria on the record player is the best thing for the soul, the mind and every other part of the human anatomy,” he said.
But still the question: What is an aphrodisiac and what does it really do?
Does one take it oneself or discreetly slip it to the object of one`s desire? Does it heighten attraction or simply lower inhibition? Does it awaken the senses or put one`s intellect to sleep?
Henry C. Lu, a Chinese herbalist in private practice in British Columbia who is the author of ”Chinese System of Food Cures” (Sterling Publishing, 1986) has firm convictions on the subject. He has a host of love remedies, he said, for a variety of libidinal problems. But he said he would not prescribe any of them unless absolutely necessary.
One example is an herb called yin yang huo, which centuries ago was discovered to have a particularly arousing effect on goats.
”I would prescribe it only if there was something wrong,” Lu said, explaining that an overindulgence in one`s libido-or anything else, for that matter-can create an imbalance in the rest of one`s life.
Anne Prescott, chairman of the English Department at Barnard College, cautioned that in literature aphrodisiacs have been thought of as dangerous devices that no ”reasonable person” would ever want. (But whoever said lust had anything to do with reason?)
”They cloud the vision,” she observed, ticking off the example of Puck`s flower juice in Shakespeare`s ”Midsummer Night`s Dream”: The characters, after being squirted in the eyes with the juice, fall foolishly in love with the first person they see.
She mentioned, too, the Searchers` 1965 hit song, ”Love Potion No. 9,”
and the unfortunate fellow, who having sipped it, found himself kissing everything in sight including the ”cop at 34th and Vine.”
Endowed with essentials
According to ”Aphrodisiacs and Love Magic” by Pamela Allardice (Avery Publishing Group, 1989), certain foods said to be aphrodisiacs do contain nutrients that could bolster an otherwise nutritionally deficient diet.
Oysters, for example, are richly endowed with zinc. Tomatoes, once known in France as pommes d`amour (apples of love), contain high amounts of potassium.
Dr. Michael Liebowitz, a psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City and the author of ”Chemistry of Love” has looked into the fact that chocolate contains phenylethylamine, or PEA, which, it is said, is released in the brain when people fall in love.
”But when you eat a lot of chocolate, the PEA of the brain doesn`t go up,” said Liebowitz, who is as skeptical as most other scientists on the subject. ”The brain is choosy about what it lets get in.”
But that, in fact, may be the point. Ask Laurie Cabot. A so-called witch in Salem, Mass., Cabot ”absolutely” believes in the magic of love potions, and if they do no harm, she contends, why not give them a chance?
”They give people a feeling of amiability and affection,” she asserted, encouraging even the timid to try. All it requires, she said, is a little knowledge and the appropriate equipment. One must understand that when it comes to witchcraft, foods are selected not for their seductive texture or scent but rather the influence they receive from the planets.
Venus on the upswing
Those controlled by Mars cause people to think of marriage and partnership, Cabot said. Those controlled by Venus make people fall in love.
The apple is particularly potent, she said, because it is ruled by Venus and Mars. Its powers can be enhanced, she said, if it is ”charged,” a special, easily learned process that involves casting a magical love spell.
Candles also can help, she said, particularly if they have been touched by a drop of charged apple juice. Pink, red, green, copper and rose-colored candles are best; so are black, which she said ”draws love in.” Use white candles, she advised, to send a love message to someone far away.
So then what is an aphrodisiac? Who`s to say? If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so, too, might be the aphrodisiac.
A glass of brandy? A fistful of raspberries? A platter of crab? A takeout container of moo shu chicken? A perfectly sliced pear?
Let the scientists laugh. But let`s face facts: When did the scientific method ever make any serious contribution to the gloriously unpredictable vagaries of passion?
