The Food of Love

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So you guys went to Belize over the break and you ate some things.

So, we did.

We went snorkeling one day.

The last time we were in the water, our guide did some free diving and he brought up a couple of conchs, and he was going to eat them himself later in the day.

So, he started kind of pulling the meat out, and then he took out this long, thin, gelatinous thing, and he said, Here, eat it raw, straight from the animal.

And of course, I was like, Sure, no problem.

That's pretty much it.

I'm like, Yeah, whatever.

So, I took a bite, I shared it around.

There were only three of us.

It It was me and Tim, of course, and this other woman who was snorkeling with us.

Described the taste.

It tasted sort of like savory gelatin.

It didn't, a little bit like zero.

Gummy worm.

A salty gummy worm.

Yeah, kind of like a kelp-like gummy worm.

And he made some comment about it being like Viagra.

I kind of missed that, though.

And I kept on saying, I wonder what part of the animal this is.

Bless your heart.

And I'm in the back of the boat, and the diver's on the front, and we sort of look at each other with a bemused expression and sort of two beats, and both at the exact same time, to Cynthia said, it's the good part.

And to be honest, I'm not sure I even got it exactly then.

I think it took me a little bit while until I realized we had eaten conch penis.

And any lingering

thoughts on conch penis?

What's the verdict?

How did it affect you?

I can't say that we had any dramatic

activity when we got to shore, but to be fair, fair, we were still hanging around with the other divers, so it probably would have been a bad situation if it took us that strongly.

Yes, no immediate clothes ripping off, as it were.

It's true, but all the lady conks in that area were pretty sad that night, I'm sure.

It might have worked out well for us, but it was a bad night for them.

By the way, you are listening to Gastropod, the only podcast devoted to all things conch penis.

Or as we usually say, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history.

I'm Cynthia Graeber.

That was my partner, Tim Buntel.

And I'm Nicola Twilley.

Hearing about Cynthia and Tim's Belizean dining adventures did not make me jealous, but it did make me wonder, what's up with aphrodisiacs?

Which foods count as an aphrodisiac and why?

Do any of them actually work?

And how in the world do you even test that?

So that's what this episode is all about.

Consider it a Valentine's Day treat from two confirmed Valentine haters.

For parents who listen with their children, or anyone who might be listening in public, don't play this on the lab or kitchen stereo.

As you can imagine, we'll be talking about sex and genitalia.

So, Cynthia, what is an aphrodisiac?

Of course, there's oysters, truffles, chocolate, strawberries,

avocado, asparagus, pears, ooh, banana.

That's the thing.

If you have a dirty mind, anything could be an aphrodisiac.

That's historian Tasha Marks.

I run a practice called AVM Curiosities, which makes events and installations inspired by food art and history.

And that is not her only qualification for this episode.

Before I started AVM Curiosities, I managed a sex shop for three years.

So this is a particularly good subject for me.

Shut up.

That's amazing.

So you are uniquely well qualified.

Yeah.

I'm not sure.

You might be on a Venn diagram of people who have managed sex shops and know about historical foods.

You might be able to do it.

I think you might be here.

exactly.

So, when you think about what's been considered an aphrodisiac throughout history, conch penises aren't surprising.

People ate genitalia to, in theory, make their own genitalia more potent.

They ate stag penises and bull penises and stallion penises and lots of testicles from all sorts of animals, too.

This idea is a really old one.

Our ancient, ancient cave-dwelling ancestors believed in this sort of sympathetic magic, that you could somehow absorb the strength and vigor of others by eating them.

It's not just the genitalia itself, it is literally anything that remotely resembles a vagina or breasts or testicles or a penis.

Asparagus were popular aphrodisiacs.

Yes, so there's the sort of male carrot and asparagus versus the sort of female pomegranate oyster

medley.

So yeah, we're quite crude when it comes to aphrodisiacs, especially, I mean, something like oysters are a very good example because not only are they meant to sort of resemble female genitalia, but they've got that sort of mouthfeel to them, that texture.

And the same ilk as oysters have that sort of texture.

You've got pears, which are meant to have, you know, soft flesh.

And if you cut them sort of lengthways, they're also meant to look a bit like female genitalia.

Yeah, we can sort of find genitalia in any vegetable, really.

It's a bit like people who find like the face of Jesus in a piece of toast.

If you're looking for it, you can see it everywhere.

I know.

Well, when you see faces and things, it's called paridolia,

which I've always thought was a lovely lovely word.

But I don't think there's a word for seeing genitals and everything.

There's a curious logic behind this, or at least there was in early Europe.

If you believe that God has created the world for mankind, as they did, then it's also plausible that all the objects of his creation that he intended you to use would be clearly labeled.

So if a plant looked like a heart, it should be good for your heart.

And if it looked like a penis, well...

It wasn't just early Europe.

The Chinese had the same thought, and that is one of the reasons that bulbous bulbous ginseng is considered an aphrodisiac.

Today, we don't necessarily think that God has marked out oysters as good for lady parts just because they sort of look and feel like them, but we still attribute aphrodisiac powers to them.

This is one of my favorite descriptions.

Casanova said that oysters were like women swimming in their own juices.

A powerful thought, indeed.

Casanova had 50 oysters every day for breakfast, apparently.

But is there any science behind the oyster's reputation?

There's been no data or no studies to support the use of oysters.

The only

scientific support of the use of oysters is the fact that they do contain a lot of zinc and zinc is necessary for spermatogenesis.

However, certainly there's been no evidence to show that just straight zinc supplementation helps with sexual desire or anything like that.

So, no.

Gynecologists Elizabeth West and Michael Critchman published a scientific study on some of the most popular aphrodisiacs and whether or not they work.

They're based at UC Irvine and he's also a sex therapist.

Well, I still like oysters.

So, some aphrodisiacs are genitalia, some look like genitalia, and some just mimic the approach route to genitalia.

Actually, artichokes are something that come up quite a lot.

Catherine de'Medici was said to really like them because they heated the body and spirit.

But I think as well, the sort of the ritual of eating an artichoke, you're sort of peeling off the leaves.

It's a bit like undressing your vegetables before undressing your partner.

Maybe that's part of it as well.

We know that these aphrodisiacs are basically folklore, but we wanted to try out some of the historical recipes.

We asked Tasha for some suggestions.

And there's also one from Pliny the Elder, so this is sort of Roman era, and that was a crushed garlic and coriander in white wine.

And he sort of said that was an infallible sexual stimulant.

I think crushed garlic and coriander, I mean, I hate coriander.

I know some people love it.

I hate coriander too.

At least, I hate the leaves.

I call the leaves cilantro.

I do like the seeds, and I checked we are supposed to use the seeds.

Like Alberts, Tasha calls both the leaf and the seed coriander.

Either way, though, the garlic sounds like the real problem in this one to me.

Maybe I'd recommend doing that with your partner.

It's no fun if one of you is smelling of garlic and wine.

Maybe it smells like this sort of aftermath of going to a very nice French restaurant.

I'm not sure.

But

it'd be interesting to hear if that would work.

So I tried this with my husband, Jeff.

Okay.

Jeff?

I'm just here slicing aphrodisiacs.

You haven't started slicing aphrodisiacs yet, though.

I don't know what I'm doing.

You just put a microphone on my face.

I like your technique.

I can smell the vigor already.

Alright, so the garlic is being crushed/slash sliced.

It's forming a nice little

geometric pile here.

I'm getting excited.

I poured glasses of two buck white wine, only the best for Pliny the Elder, and we split the garlic between them and then got busy with the coriander.

Jeff got out the puzzle and mortar, but it turned out we didn't have coriander seeds, we only had the pre-ground stuff.

I like to grind.

But if I can't, then this is alright.

Okay, it's a nice.

There's a brown film atop the Pinot Grigio.

This is a good sign.

Nikki, you made this before I did, and I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I called you for some advice.

Joe a pioneer.

I'd been considering making it in the morning and letting it steep for a while, but then I reconsidered because the garlic sounded pretty bad.

So I made it in the kitchen, and then I brought just one glass over to Tim.

Okay, my darling, I have a treat for you.

It's something that Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist and philosopher, he considered this to be an aphrodisiac.

I'm gonna feed you.

Just take a tiny little sip.

Do we know if he had any children?

I didn't look at that on Wikipedia.

So here we are, the moment of truth.

We asked Tasha what to expect.

I wanted to have the fire extinguisher handy, just in case.

At that time, a sort of aphrodisiac was for getting the body ready for sexual activity.

So it wasn't just, it wasn't an overwhelming sort of desire.

We're not going to sort of jump their bones immediately.

It was more a sort of feeling of well-being that would then lead to sexual activity, I guess.

But you'll have to report back.

So back at Cynthia and Tim's apartment.

You're not getting this on the radio, but since it's in a clear glass, I can see this

really muddy, murky bottom of whatever is floating on the bottom of this glass.

Well, there's garlic and coriander.

Well, good for you.

Bottoms up, my love.

Oh my God.

I mean, if you don't smell the garlic, it hasn't really steeped very long, so the coriander and the wine is actually fine.

I think your face is worse than mine.

I think you've got the face that I had in the bitter melon episode, I think.

I'm not sure.

I mean, if we threw that in with rice while it was cooking, it might taste delightful.

Yeah, I think that would be a nice marinade for chicken, maybe.

That sounds hot.

It was.

And you, how did this rather disgusting concoction work for you?

Huh.

It's not that bad, actually.

What do you think?

Oh, no, you don't agree with me.

It's not nearly as bad as I expected.

It actually just sort of tastes like we're out for Italian food.

In the form of a wine glass.

Yeah.

It's a simulated Italian dinner in glass form.

Arousing us.

This would actually be a great thing to drink if you are unable to digest solid food, but you wish to get the experience of eating an olive garden.

Olive garden in in a glass.

That's how you could market this thing.

Millions would line up.

What's it uh doing to you?

I'm afraid I can't say that on the radio.

For Tim, the one thing he couldn't say on the radio would probably have been that he was about to puke.

I'm not sure how helpful that was gonna be.

Yeah, Jeff was putting on a good show, but as soon as I switched the recorder off, he dumped his out.

That was a fail for historical aphrodisiacs, I'm afraid.

Pliny, I'm sorry your vigor potion did not work its magic on us.

You know, his other recipe had you rubbing nettles on both men and women's sexual organs.

I don't think he knew what he was talking about.

I'm not going to plenty for sex advice anymore.

But let's not give up.

There are many more aphrodisiacs out there.

We've been focusing on the ones that are testicles or look like testicles, but there are whole other categories with more practical reasoning behind them.

One of the things that struck me as always was sort of perfume and smell.

So with aphrodisiacs, especially in history, this is a sort of population, they didn't wash as much as we do, they didn't brush their teeth as much as we do.

So, aphrodisiacs are quite strongly perfumed.

If you look at roses or even the foods, you've got lots of herbs like basil and fennel.

They're quite strong sort of flavours.

So, from a purely smell point of view, I think having a strongly flavoured aphrodisiac is sure to help as well.

A way to cover up your partner's body odor at the time, huh?

Pretty much, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Excellent.

Don't wash, just have some fennel with basil.

So, in this case, basil and fennel are less of a turn-on and maybe more of a way of overcoming a barrier.

A shower and brushing your teeth, the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Or maybe not.

There's another category of food turn-ons, the super rare, expensive, luxury foods.

Exclusivity was a definite turn-on.

Something luxury foods were seen as quite sort of

stimulating as opposed to sort of sustenance.

And sort of the rarer the food, the better.

But then of course things don't always stay rare.

So at one time or another, even potatoes were considered an aphrodisiac, probably by the people trying to sell them.

So, when they first appeared, sort of in the European palate, it was hailed as an aphrodisiac.

And in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff, which is one of the characters, was talking about aphrodisiacs, and he lists potatoes as one of the sort of chief examples.

So, you know, we're unlikely to get turned on by a jack of potato, but go back a few hundred years and maybe it was different.

A lot of herbs and spices were seen as aphrodisiac when they were still exotic treasures brought back from the east.

And then when foods from the New World like potatoes first arrived in Europe they had that same rarity value.

The tomato which is another American import that was also seen as having aphrodisiac powers.

It was called a love apple.

Although that actually has a funny story behind it.

It was kind of a mistake.

It was apple of the moors, pomi de moré.

And then the French heard that and thought it was pomme d'amour or love apple.

I do love tomatoes, but I think it's safe to say we no longer think they're love love apples.

It's hard to feel super turned on by the base ingredient for ketchup.

But now on to another luxury item, chocolate.

Although that is still considered a luxury item today and an aphrodisiac.

It's the most popular gift for Valentine's Day.

Like tomatoes and potatoes, chocolate came to Europe from the Americas.

Europeans fell in love with it once they figured out they should mix in sugar and maybe milk.

The Aztecs had it with honey and chili, among other spices.

So if we still think it's an aphrodisiac now, maybe there's something to it.

Let's put this question to the scientists.

Does it work?

There have been a few small studies that have looked at the sexual function of people who consume a lot of chocolate versus those who don't.

And then they measured their satisfaction scores on that female sexual function index, which is basically a questionnaire that they ask women about how, you know, their desire is, how their orgasms are, about their libido.

And they didn't find any difference between chocolate users and non-chocolate users.

But don't give up.

There is still a tiny bit of hope for chocolate, according to Michael Critchman.

There was a study in Italy that showed a trend, but it wasn't clinically or statistically significant.

And there's the premise, the biological premise, is it has a chemical PEA in it, which can mimic illicit drugs that can affect your brain.

Just in case it doesn't do anything for you on its own, Tasha had a tip for taking chocolate to the next level.

I've been lucky enough to have some amberis, so I've been infusing that in sugar for the last 18 months.

And I'm going to use that to make ambergris lozenges, which if dissolved in hot chocolate were a favourite of Casanova.

They're meant to give him a little kick at bedtime.

Ambergris, my favorite.

That was the magical ingredient in our whale poo ice cream from last summer.

It's not exactly whale poo, but it does come out the same end.

You should listen to our ice cream episode for more details.

And apparently, ambergris is also an aphrodisiac.

Well, it is super rare and hard to get hold of, even today.

So that's exciting.

Michael said there was something in chocolate that might actually be doing something to our bodies.

And that brings us to another category of aphrodisiacs.

These are the ones that had a specific biological reason that they might work.

I found this other group of foods which were referred to as aphrodisiacs and they were called windy meats.

And the windy meats was a sort of flatulent category.

So you're looking at sort of beans and peas.

And the reason why they thought that these were aphrodisiacs is they thought that an erection was caused by wind and pressure in the body.

So giving your partner flatulent foods was bound to give them an erection.

So not one I don't think we go with today.

So when we say these have a specific biological reason for working, it's worth bearing in mind that medical science has come a long way.

Back in the day, for instance, they did have a specific, if slightly misguided, reason.

They thought salt might help you in the bedroom.

Salt, yeah.

So that's where the word sort of salacious or it doesn't necessarily come from that, but they definitely attributed the sal and salacious to being salt.

And they believed that sort of the seed, both in men and women, was made of sort of salty particles that came from the blood.

Their salty seed was more fertile, so salty foods and salt itself was seen as the ultimate aphrodisiac.

And some aphrodisiacs are just foods that are good for you, especially if you have a poor diet.

Which a lot of people did.

Adding eggs and honey and nuts and things like that to your diet would improve your overall pep and zip, which has to help out in the bedroom department.

There wasn't a lot of info about what was supposed to work.

People may have shared these stories and whispered secrets.

Some did actually write it down in pamphlets or books.

The Perfumed Garden by Sheikh Nifzawi is quite a good one.

That was published in about the 12th century.

I mean, that's now available as an English translation.

And that's got some quite interesting things in it.

The one that I thought sounded the nicest was the one I sent you, which was

almonds and pine nuts mixed together with honey and taken just before bed on three consecutive nights.

It was meant to give you and sharpen your sexual appetite.

And I thought, that sounds quite tasty.

I could do that one.

I thought this one sounded like a much better idea.

I think not only does it sound delicious, but I like the idea of having to eat sweets before bed on three consecutive nights.

And I imagine that would probably mix together quite finely.

So I imagine it would be more of like a sort of

a nougat texture.

I imagine if you cut the almonds and pine nuts, put it in a mixer with some thick honey and roll it into little balls.

I think it'll be more like a sort of fudge sort of texture, I guess.

I think that'll be quite nice.

And almonds in there, and pine nuts, there's references to them as aphrodisiacs that go through time.

Almonds, there's lots about them in sort of Italian folk medicine, about them causing excitement.

And if you look at the Victorian language of flowers, which was a very sort of shortly lived fad that you could sort of communicate particular stories to your loved one just through the selection of flowers that you present them with.

But in that sort of language, almond blossom indicates passion.

So that's why I chose that one.

Back into the kitchen we go, Cynthia.

Round two on the random historical aphrodisiac challenge.

20 almonds, 200 pine nuts, and some thick honey.

Boom, as Emeral would say.

I like this Sheikh Nazawi guy.

He has a whole chapter titled Prescriptions for Increasing the Dimension of Small Members and for Making Them Splendid.

I think we're going to have to refer to members as splendid from now on.

That's 22.

What will happen to us?

It could push us over the edge.

And 20 of these guys.

And I think the Sheikh

had 200, but they maybe were not as expensive in his day.

I like to grind my nuts, so we'll put them in the pestle.

Isn't that

the mortar?

I think we'll.

We'll put it in the mortar.

It seems like you can't stop.

I can't stop.

So according to Cynthia, who's actually read the instructions, we're supposed to make these little nuts things into balls, nut balls.

Okay.

But I feel as though the innuendo is already strong with these.

So she didn't exactly tell us what to do, but she said she had this idea that it should be kind of almost a fudge-like consistency.

So I think

I'm going to pulverize the almonds and the pinuts.

Maybe just a handful of each.

Okay,

starting this up.

Meanwhile, back in Brooklyn,

great.

There's nuts and honey, which not to like.

Here I go.

Hmm.

Yeah, it tastes like breakfast.

I feel like I'm camping.

A code for horny, or what is that?

No, just.

Putting up a tent or whatever?

Just tastes like granola.

Tim had a somewhat similar response.

This time, I'll feed you this, you can feed me this, and maybe it'll be a little nicer.

And as you said, there are ways to feed that are sexy and ways that aren't.

I imagine if I just smashed this all in your face, it wouldn't be as much.

And I have to say, the microphone in my face is probably counts on the less sexy side of ways to feed me.

Isn't that tastier than wine with garlic?

It's tastier than wine with garlic.

It's like a nice mushy breakfast cereal.

Jeff was perfectly happy to have this honey nut treat for three nights running.

But I'm curious if that's just a caloric thing in that I would have more energy having just eaten almonds, pine nuts, and honey, and thus I'm really kind of ready to go, or if it's actually doing something to my circulatory system that would result in some sort of male response to this tort of food.

You want the scientist?

You're going to have to listen to Gastropod.

All right.

So we know that honey and nuts have plenty of protein and calories and lots of great stuff for you and the nuts, but honey is still considered an aphrodisiac today.

And honey was very, very popular at sort of weddings and honey at bedtime is quite a well-known one, recommended by the Greeks.

And there's an Arab doctor called Avin Sena who prescribed honey mixed with ginger and pepper.

So that sounds quite nice as well.

But perhaps where the word honeymoon comes from, so the sort of hope for a sweet marriage.

And obviously, you can call your partner honey or sweetie.

I see how it all links up.

That's the history, but I promise Jeff the science.

For general honey, the stuff that you would buy at the supermarket or at a farmer's market, that is perfectly safe to ingest, but there's no data to support that it has any aphrodisiac effect.

So it does have this sort of mythological belief that honey does have an aphrodisiac effect.

And I think that that probably stems from the ancient use of honey and this fermented beverage called mead that they drank, I think, in the Renaissance.

And also that, you know, the idea of a honeymoon, which was in early marriages, couples would drink this honey fermented beverage every night for the first few months of their marriage until they were able to get pregnant essentially and have a baby.

But then there's this other product that is available called Mad Honey and that is from the nectar of a rhododendron plant in the Black Sea region of Turkey and that's a completely different product.

It is a honey but it contains this toxin called greyanotoxin that basically in low doses causes you to have low blood pressure, it slows down your heart rate and probably does have some sort of sexual arousal effect.

However, at high doses, it can cause patients to pass out.

It can cause them to basically have a heart attack.

And there's been case reports of couples who have both ingested this honey and died.

So, certainly, it is not recommended to go to Turkey and buy any of the mad honey that is on the market.

That sounds like a horrible idea.

Stay clear of mad honey.

There are easier and safer ways to have a good time in the sack, kids.

We're not done with aphrodisiacs.

There are some that seem to actually work.

Maybe.

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First of all, we have to decide what we mean by work.

What are these things supposed to do anyway?

Right, I guess I have to wait a little bit longer.

Let's find out first what they were supposed to do in the past.

Tasha says that historically, aphrodisiacs were considered as a sort of tool to overcome infertility rather than the sort of titillating aphrodisiacs that we sort of associate with.

So a lot of it was about curing impotence and making seed more vigorous, etc.

But then there's all this language about making ladies more willing.

Like this dish will make her swoon or make her unable to resist you.

Which all sounds rather unfortunately close to a date rape drug.

But sexual politics has moved on, thankfully.

And hopefully, in fact, probably, those didn't actually work as described.

But today, we're likely to use aphrodisiacs for different reasons.

Someone might be looking for an increase in desire, and then maybe people are looking to improve their actual performance.

Right, treating impotence is different from something that just makes you feel horny.

But untangling all that is hard, as is doing a scientific study on aphrodisiacs.

I mean, do they follow people into the bedroom?

How do you know if it's working?

If you do have sex, are you having more of it?

Is it better?

How do you evaluate that?

Fortunately, Cynthia, we managed to get two scientists who wrote a whole paper about the efficacy of aphrodisiacs, if you remember.

So let's ask them.

In an ideal world, of course, everything would be a double-blind, placebo-controlled study where you have, you know, two groups of patients and some of them are taking an herb, some of them are taking a placebo, and then you're going to give them that medication and then after do some sort of

quantitative measure to figure out what the efficacy was.

But according to Elizabeth and Michael, not a lot of these sort of trials have been done for aphrodisiacs.

So we also looked at just other review articles and basically any well-designed research study if there was anything available.

And then for other supplements that are just extremely common, so for oysters, honey, things like that that patients often cite as a natural aphrodisiac, there's no studies whatsoever.

And so we just did a review of any of the available literature, even though it wasn't strong.

In some of the 50 studies that Elizabeth and Michael included in their paper, the scientists gave people a questionnaire to fill out.

The female sexual function index to see if they had an improvement in their sexual desire, in their libido, in the intensity of their orgasm, whatever it was that they were looking for.

Other times they tested the aphrodisiac on animals instead.

I think it was for damiana, which is one of the extracts from a Mexican shrub.

They actually use damiana in animals to enhance their breeding.

And so then they

sort of extrapolated from that that it might help with human desire.

And then from there, some of the major drug companies have started, or basically major commercial companies have started using Damiana in some of their supplements.

That's essentially based only on data that supports copulation in rats.

So in general, there are a lot of challenges with this research.

It is not easy to study.

The trials are always really small.

And when it comes to supplements, we don't even know that one supplement in the store has the same amount of active ingredient as another company's product.

And then studying sexual response is just hard.

No pun intended.

It makes sense if you think about it.

I mean, finding two people who agree on what good sex is is a miracle.

But we did promise you some aphrodisiac success stories.

The scientists found a couple of foods that do seem to work.

So ginseng is used for basically everything under the sun.

So Korean red ginseng has been shown to help with athletic performance and cancer prevention, sexual enhancement, and they think that it works by basically relaxing the smooth muscles.

And so the corpus cavernosum are basically one of the

main structures of the penis.

If that is basically dilated and you increase the blood flow to the penis, then that's how they think that it increases sexual desire.

or performance.

Elizabeth and Michael found seven double-blind placebo control trials, the best kind of study that showed some effect for ginseng.

But Elizabeth is not ready to start recommending ginseng just yet.

I wouldn't say that it's completely proven because we don't know the optimal dosing, but I think it has the strongest support behind it.

It's certainly the best studied.

They also have been able to prove that it actually does release nitric oxide and relax those smooth muscles, therefore increasing the blood supply either to the corpus cavernosum of the penis or also to the clitoral cavernosal muscles and to the vaginal walls.

So, I think it has the most support behind it, but at the same time, we don't know the optimal dosing or the purity of all of the products on the market, and therefore, it's difficult to recommend it to patients.

So, my personal favorite in the list that they studied, and another one that seems to maybe work, is called maca.

It's a root vegetable from Peru, and it grows super high up in the Andes.

I actually reported on it a few years ago.

I spoke to a scientist in Peru named Ivan Menrique with the International Center for the Potato.

He worked with their other non-potato roots and tubers.

Ivan told me that maca was such great food that when the Incans wanted to expand their empire, it was the one item in their rations that they wouldn't leave behind.

The Incans had a huge empire, so they had a lot of ground to cover.

But then, maca had other supposedly amazing properties, according to the Incas.

It increased fertility.

This is a story Ivan told me that one of the chroniclers wrote at the time of the conquistadors.

The Spaniards' horses and cows wouldn't procreate, so the locals told them to feed the animals maca, and apparently it worked.

Yvonne said that locals in the Andes still suggest using it today for people as well.

Maca actually almost went extinct until scientists decided to study it and see if it really had all these properties that people claim.

Elizabeth and Michael reviewed four clinical trials looking at the effects of maca on both female and male sexual response.

And three of them did show that maca had a positive effect on sexual dysfunction, erectile dysfunction specifically.

We don't know exactly how it works, but Elizabeth said that maca does contain natural hormone-like chemicals like phytoestrogens.

But then people's levels of testosterone and estrogen didn't go up after eating maca, so it's hard to say for sure that that's how it's working.

The one thing that maca and ginseng and even chocolate seem to have in common is that they're apparently good for energy.

The Aztec ruler Montezuma loved his legendary 50 cups of cocoa daily.

He also used to drink chocolate before visiting his harem.

Chocolate, rule an empire, and get laid.

Today, maca is sold in natural food stores as a supplement.

It's now helping out Peruvian farmers in the Andes, and it's no longer in danger of extinction.

Still, like with all food and herb supplements, nobody knows the optimal dosage.

And Michael says you should not run out and buy any of these except chocolate.

In her professional opinion, you can have as much chocolate as you like.

It's not all wonderful things.

And again, the purity and reliability and consistency is variable.

So they interact with conventional medications.

People have had adverse effects.

They can affect the liver.

They can affect blood pressure.

They can affect a variety of different conditions.

Michael says that, of course, if you're having serious sexual health issues, you should consult a doctor.

We're going to end this episode with good news, though.

The best aphrodisiac is completely free.

It's called the placebo effect.

Yeah, I think the sort of placebo effect with aphrodisiacs can't be denied.

There's the ritual of eating as well.

You know, eating is obviously a super sensual experience.

You're using all the senses, there's taste and touch and smell and all these things which are, you know, the noises of enjoying food aren't a million miles off the noises of enjoying yourself in the bedroom sort of thing.

Remember the end of the year feast and our cheese orgasm noises?

Aw, one of my happiest gastropod memories.

And it's not even just the placebo effect.

There's a sort of Pavlov's dog response going on.

If you already associate being fed strawberries dipped in chocolate with romance, then you're more likely to feel in the mood when your partner does that.

It's all about the ritual and the ambiance and engaging all your senses.

Bood can be really sexy.

I suppose if you're told what to feel and then you're not feeling it, it's one thing, but if you're thinking, how am I feeling?

And then your partner's there and then they're making an effort and they've put on this meal for you.

I think you can see how it would sort of spiral into that.

So it's the whole performance really with an an aphrodisiac.

It's not just the thing itself.

And this has some scientific backing.

Sexual medicine is kind of putting gas in the tank for the ability to act and react.

And,

you know, I think that psychology or environment or situation or stress or fatigue or you name what other external factor certainly influences our ability to act, react, or stay neutral.

So, you know, everything, I think, in life is mind, body, and spirit.

We know that chronic stress will lower your testosterone, which will impact your desire, which will cause more stress, which will lower your testosterone.

So I think that if we are being more mindful about what we do, we tend to change our biochemistry.

So biology will influence your psychology, and psychology changes how your biology acts and reacts.

And the opposite of chronic stress is a really lovely, intimate dinner where you take the time to be really focused on each other and and on your senses and then your partner does the washing up.

That's what seals the deal for me anyway.

That is it.

We have now revealed the secret of aphrodisiacs.

They do work, any and all of them work if you put in the effort.

And now you know you can plan an evening of seduction.

Maybe don't let us know how it goes when you try it at home, but we wish you lots of fun.

We do have one more tip, and it's a mistake we've both made in the past.

If you go overboard, if you enjoy a little too much of your delicious food, you're more likely to skip any post-meal action and go straight to sleep.

I mean, I've tried lots of things, but I think unfortunately, because I'm just so excited by food, I'm probably a bit of a lost cause.

Though I think the only thing with me is probably excess.

It's about learning that uh it's quality, not quantity.

So all these aphrodisiacs are fabulous if you have, you know, these lovely, you know, you're having your starter of asparagus dipped in hondaise sauce and followed by some sort of lovely capon stuffed with chestnut puree or something, and then you've got something something else and something else, and it's no good if you're then too full to actually

enjoy the effect.

For our next episode, we'd love to hear your stories, though.

Not about aphrodisiacs.

We're looking for tales of foods you hated as a kid but then grew to love.

What happened?

And also, do you have stories about what your kids love to eat or won't touch?

Can you get them to tell you that themselves?

Record a voice memo on your smartphone and send it to us at contact at gastropod.com or just send us an email with your tales.

Thanks this episode to Tasha Marks, Food Historian Extraordinaire.

If you're listening to this before the 12th of February and you happen to be in London, you can check out her Ambergris lozenges at the National Gallery.

Find her online at AVM Curiosities.com.

Thanks also to scientists Elizabeth West and Michael Critchman and to Peruvian scientist Ivan Manrique who spent a couple of days with me in the Andes and in Lima a few years ago.

And thanks as always to our patient and utterly splendid partners, Jeff and Tim, who put up with having a microphone shoved in their faces as we fed them garlic and wine.

And sometimes tastier things.

That's all for this episode.

We'll be back in two weeks with a look at the invention of baby food and how we learn to like and dislike different tastes.

So send us your stories.

This month on Explain It to Me, we're talking about all things wellness.

We spend nearly $2 trillion on things that are supposed to make us well: collagen smoothies and cold plunges, Pilates classes, and fitness trackers.

But what does it actually mean to be well?

Why do we want that so badly?

And is all this money really making us healthier and happier?

That's this month on Explain It to Me, presented by Pureleaf.