By Ian Keteku
Mouth watering, delectable, succulent, delicious, juicy, scrumptious . . . sex!
A little tipsy from rye and Coke and without their partners present, Dan Nicholson and Alex Stallings feel free to engage in a little barroom banter about how their sex lives and food intersect.
“Good food leads to great sex,” Nicholson says.
Whether it’s taking a date to dinner, giving a lover a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day, or a more adventurous foray into a bottle of vanilla body paint, edible treats have become part-in-parcel of North American relationships, Nicholson says.
Nicholson and Stallings’ tales of culinary curiosity are echoed by both a Centretown sex shop manager and a relationship therapist, who say the practice of using food during sex is changing.
Couples are taking health, usefulness and convenience into consideration, which changes the type of food used the bedroom.
“I go to a grocery store for edible products,” Stallings says, describing her delectable grocery list: bananas, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, strawberries, and caramel to make a split. “I don’t care how healthy it is, it’s for sex.”
But Nicholson sings a different tune.
“It has to be healthy, it shows that you put some effort into it,” he says.
Ray Robertson, a Centretown registered sex therapist and clinical social worker, says Nicholson is part of a growing number of people who think a revamped sex food group should resemble something out of a Martha Stewart cookbook.
“A healthy diet is going to promote a libido more than anything else,” Robertson says, noting erectile dysfunction has been associated with poor diet.
The Canadian Medical Association recommends men with erectile dysfunction get a cardio-vascular check up because the same poor eating habits that contribute to heart attacks also restrict blood flow to the penis, says Robertson.
Christa Martin is the manager of Venus Envy, a sex merchandize store at Lisgar and Bank streets. She says couples are realizing foods traditionally used for intimacy, such as whipped cream and candy, “are not as friendly to the PH balances and
genitals as some other products may be.”
But, the chocolate body paint and flavoured massage oils at Venus Envy are safe to put anywhere, says Martin.
Martin says couples are moving beyond whipped cream, anyways.
“Using food for sexual play is a passing trend,” she says.
Although Venus Envy stocks cookbooks for meals using traditional aphrodisiacs, another popular cookbook guides bakers on how to shape gingerbread cookies into various sexual positions.
A reason for the changing appetite in edible products is the growing belief that aphrodisiacs such as chocolate,
ginger and kiwi don’t work, says Robertson.
“If you’re taking a shortcut by eating a pill or taking a certain kind of food, you’re basically fooling yourself,” Robertson says.
Despite Robertson’s position, others still believe in the power of specific foods raise libido.
In 2005 the University of Milan published a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine which stated that women who ate chocolate daily reported significantly higher sexual desire than those
who did not.
Robertson says that although food may not increase libido physiologically, it can emotionally.
“When you give someone food, it is something that they actually take in and incorporate into their own bodies – reflective of sex,” Robertson says.
“It doesn’t really matter if it’s champagne and oysters Rockefeller or milk and cookies, giving food can enhance a relationship.”
Regardless of data, couples are still hungry for love.
“I like to make a nice Cajun meal for my girlfriend,” Nicholson says. He says cooking can be just as sexual as edible massage oil or chocolate
paint. “It all plays into the eroticism of food.”