THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502130188
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RUTH FANTASIA, ASSISTANT TO THE FOOD EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
A BOX OF CHOCOLATES, a bottle of wine, a dozen oysters. Tuesday is Valentine's Day and, just as they have for centuries, romantics everywhere will search for the perfect ingredients to enhance desire.
Ancient Indians, for example, believed honey was an aphrodisiac, writes Cynthia Mervis Watson in her book ``Love Potions: A Guide to Aphrodisiacs and Sexual Pleasures'' (Putnam Publishing Group, 1993). The Romans, Egyptians, Chinese and others considered the egg a cure for the loveless, she writes.
Even today, we look for the magic potion:
``The Truth About Food and Passion,'' headlines one story in the February issue of Shape magazine.
The February/March issue of Cooking Light includes a list of foods and the reasons they may improve your love life.
Among Cooking Light's modern-day aphrodisiacs are bananas, whose potassium is said to be good for the muscles and nerves; figs and asparagus, whose niacin improves circulation; and fish, whose omega-3 fatty acids help production of chemicals vital to sexual response.
``In the long run, any substance or activity that promotes good health is likely to have a positive impact,'' write Albert Richard Allgeier and Elizabeth Rice Allgeier in ``Sexual Interactions'' (D.C. Heath and Co., 1995).
Even chocolate, which contains the stimulant phenylethylamine, has long been credited with increasing desire.
``A Food Lover's Companion'' by Evan Jones (Harper & Row, 1979) includes this poem by Stanley J. Sharpless:
Half past nine - high time for supper;
``Cocoa, love?'' ``Of course, my dear.''
Helen thinks it quite delicious,
John prefers it now to beer.
Knocking back the sepia potion,
Hubby winks, says, ``Who's for bed?''
``Shan't be long,'' says Helen softly,
Cheeks a faintly flushing red.
For they've stumbled on the secret
Of a love that never wanes,
Rapt beneath the tumbled bedclothes,
Cocoa coursing through their veins.
Expanding nature's gift
An aphrodisiac, by definition, is something that incites desire. But most experts say that's incomplete.
The Food and Drug Administration expands the definition to include phrases such as ``improves performance,'' ``builds potency'' and ``expands nature's gift of love.''
Norman Farnsworth, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says the notion of foods' powers dates to the medieval Doctrine of Signatures, also known as the Law of Similarities. The ``law'' states, if it resembles a reproductive body part, it has sexual powers. In other words, if it looks like it, it's good for it.
Cucumbers, carrots, peaches, pears and figs have shown up on lists of love foods.
Pomegranates, tomatoes and guavas with their many seeds have been used to encourage fertility, says Watson in her book.
Farnsworth, who has studied aphrodisiacs for 30 years, tells the story of a South American tribe he encountered in the late 1960s.
The natives considered a certain tree to have aphrodisiac powers. They would saw off a branch and soak it in the local whiskey, then drink the potion.
Farnsworth tested about 30 branches. Ironically, when they boiled down, the crystals that remained were saltpeter - a chemical thought by some cultures to inhibit desire.
Farnsworth says of all the substances he's studied, only two may be effective at all.
One, the famed Spanish Fly, isn't a fly but a beetle. ``It's a powerful urinary tract irritant that causes internal hemorrhage of the bladder,'' Farnsworth says.
If you take one of the beetles and put it on your skin, your skin will blister. ``Spanish Fly will obviously work,'' Farnsworth says. ``But you die. You die with a smile on your face, but you die.''
The other substance, yohimbe, is the bark of an African tree. Used in one study of diabetic males in a Veteran's Administration hospital, Farnsworth says, 35 percent of the subjects showed improved ability.
``My recollection is that (in nondiabetics) they didn't see that much of an effect,'' Farnsworth says.
``But the folklore reputation of yohimbe bark is great.''
Yohimbe, too, has drawbacks. At least one health-food store in Hampton Roads declines to stock it because it is associated with stomach irritation.
In 1989, the Food and Drug Administration said, ``There is not enough evidence to establish that any ingredient used in over-the-counter aphrodisiac drug products is safe and effective.''
Included in the FDA studies were anise, golden seal, kola, Korean ginseng, licorice, sarsaparilla and vitamins.
To be effective, a product must have more than a 30 percent success rate, says Ralph W. Stevens, assistant professor of biological services at Norfolk's Old Dominion University.
``In studies in the arena of the National Institutes of Health there's a placebo effect,'' says Stevens ``You can have as much as a 30 percent false-positive result.''
So far, aphrodisiacs have been unable to meet the criteria.
The greatest aphrodisiac
Along with ginseng, which is reputed to improve endurance and regulate male hormones, some health-food stores stock damiana, a perennial herb which has the scientific name turnera aphrodisiaca.
``In the loose form, it's a big mover,'' says Carol Gurganus, manager of the Whole Foods Co-Op in Norfolk. ``We get these big guys coming in here to get ready for their Friday night date.''
But the greatest aphrodisiac probably isn't the damiana, the chocolate or the cucumbers. It's the power of suggestion, experts say.
``Toadstools can be an aphrodisiac if someone believes in them,'' says ODU's Stevens. ``We have no way of quantifying the power of the mind.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BETH BERGMAN/Staff
Love and chocolate: Aphrodisiacs take their name from the Greek
goddess Aphrodite.
Graphic
SOME REPUTED APHRODISIACS
Anise
Apricots
Asparagus
Avocado
Bananas
Carrots
Caviar
Chocolate
Clams
Cucumbers
Damiana
Figs
Garlic
Ginseng
Guavas
Honey
Licorice
Lobster
Kola
Mussels
Onions
Oysters
Pomegranates
Rice
Sarsaparilla
Tomatoes (Love apples)
Vanilla
by CNB