Food and Sex: An Abridged History of the Unlikely Duo

You’re having dinner with a new partner, immersed in conversation, making prolonged eye contact. They look so sexy in everything they do; every dab of a napkin to their mouth or gnaw from a bite of food feels primal, almost like foreplay. 

You play footsie underneath the table, smiling to one another as if it’s an inside joke. Sharing the dessert at the end feels like a dance between your utensils, mutually giggling when your forks clash. The tension is palpable as you finish those final bites, and both of you are stopping yourselves from ripping the other’s clothes off over the lust-filled build up.

Food and sex have had an intwined relationship through history as two basic drives for animal behavior, needed to sustain themselves and continue their species. 

One theory is that food among chimpanzees was used as a trading tactic: Male chimps offer meat they have hunted to female chimps as a way to secure a mate, called the “meat-for-sex” hypothesis. Many have used this hypothesis to construct narratives around human behaviors and dating rituals.

In practice, scientists are somewhat divided on this theory and if or how it translates to human behavior. PLOS One published a study in 2009 looking at chimpanzees over a 22-month period, with the results overall strongly suggesting wild chimps exchange meat for sex. 

However, one 2010 study from the Journal of Human Evolution reviewing the meat-for-sex hypothesis says it doesn’t act in accordance with chimpanzee behavioral ecology because female chimps aren’t very selective, essentially requiring little to no incentive to mate, and because meat-for-sex exchanges likely will not provide any reproductive benefits to either partner. 

The study also notes that, when these exchanges might occur, they are so rare and different in nature from exchanges among people that human sexual bartering should be considered a separate trait, one we don’t trace back to evolutionary chimpanzee behaviors.

Though, apart from evolution or theories attempting to trace exactly why, it’s still undeniable that our society has connected food and sex, and one notable, and still prevailing, idea that unites the two is aphrodisiacs.

Aphrodisiacs are food, drink, or drugs that arouse sexual desire, stimulate genitalia, or enhance erotic pleasure. They’re so prevalent today, you’ll often see an ominous sex pill behind the glass at gas stations or possibly a sex-enhancing edible at your local dispensary.

But medical texts date back to ancient times, from a variety of cultures, each proclaiming the sexual benefits from a multitude of foods, herbs, and more. The word itself comes from classic Greek and the goddess Aphrodite of sexual love and beauty. 

Candidly, the deeper you go on the exploring root word, the less fancy and more grotesque and bizarre it gets, but: Her name comes from “Aphros,” the Greek word for “foam,” alluding to her origin story that she was “born from the foam” created when Cronus (Zues’s father) cut off Uranus’s (Cronus’s father) genitals and threw them into the sea. 

Quite the origin story, eh? If I had to learn the truth, you do too!

Some cultures didn’t stray too far from the Aphrodite’s less subtle, more literal origin tale in what they considered aphrodisiacs, though, saying animal testicles, eggs, phallic-shaped foods, and more were key links to enhance sexual performance and fertility.

A study published this year in the Journal of Global History points mainly to the first origins from the ancient Mediterranean world and medieval Islamicate medicine, though they indicate our modern conception of aphrodisiacs likely comes more from medieval Islamicate medicine over anything else from those earlier days.

The study also notes that aphrodisiac products were subject to a massive geographic spread, between the 16th and early-20th centuries, effectively merging the knowledge and aphrodisiac substances between the ancient Mediterranean, the Islamicate medieval world, and early modern Christianate societies, along with those created in 19th century French, English, and German interactions with cultures of Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and the Indian subcontinent.

That is to say, it basically blew up and became a worldwide fascination after a certain time.

Today, we have wavering perspectives on aphrodisiacs and their validity, but there are certainly some herbs that have been proven to affect libido, spermatogenesis, and sexual health and performance. A Pharmacognosy Reviews study explored a variety of herbs claimed through history to be herbal aphrodisiacs and found that many of them, to varying degrees, did in fact scientifically show aphrodisiac potential.

Though often times, research mostly notes that many foods and beverages we commonly associate with sex is likely more in our heads, though that doesn’t mean it isn’t “real.”

Food and drink, like chocolate and red wine, are often synonymous with romance and sex in the same ways red roses, or lighting a fragrant candle, or a slow and steamy 90s R&B track, might inherently just get folks in the mood because of our natural associations with those things and sex.

And regardless of the validity (or heteronormativity) of the meat-for-sex theory, it is impossible not to observe the subtle link between food and sex in our lives. 

Maybe it’s a flirt-filled meal preceding the act, or a mutual, post-coitus idea to call for delivery and refuel together on the couch, either acting as an extension of sharing intimacy and our intrinsic human needs with one another.