Legend has it that Giacomo Casanova, the eighteenth century Italian womaniser, ate fifty oysters for breakfast every single day in order to boost his sex drive. Yes, I know what you are all thinking: 'Didn’t the queasiness that must inevitably come from eating fifty oysters in a row, get in the way of lovemaking?' Well, apparently not, if the memoirs dedicated to his many romantic shenanigans are to be believed. Even in his time, the bivalve molluscs he repeatedly indulged in were deemed to be the key to his many successes with the opposite sex. So were oysters genuinely affecting his libido, or was it all a matter of autosuggestion?
Many of us like to believe food makes us frisky, even if our own intimate lives are far more low-key than Casanova’s operatic affairs. It’s easy to see why. Some of the foods we give aphrodisiac attributes to are living sensual metaphors, phallic or otherwise – without being too graphic, we’re referring to bananas, asparagus, figs or the aforementioned oysters (use your imagination).
With that in mind, it’s only natural that one should see a clam and instantly be in the mood for love, isn't it?
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Can food really get us in the mood?