October 20, 2018 • 21 mins
For thousands of years humankind has pursued the enhancement of sexual pleasure and performance through a plethora of medicines and practices -- but how many aphrodisiacs actually work?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
How do you everybody happy Saturday morning? I hope you
have watched your cartoons and have a belly full of
sugary cereal, because right now you're about to listen to
our episode on afrods X from March twelve nine. That's right, everyone, Uh,
lock the kids away, don't let him here because this
one's all about food and drink. That makes you. Uh
(00:23):
what the birds say, Randy, I believe so so please
to enjoy everyone Affords X. Right now, welcome to Stuff
you should know from house stuff Works dot com. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant.
(00:44):
Welcome yourself, buddy. Welcome Josh, Thank you Chuck. Sure that
felt pretty good? Actually did it? Just try it? Try it?
Welcome yourself. Welcome Chuck. How do you feel relaxed? Good? Good? Yeah,
it has a nice effect. It does you know what
it doesn't have a nice effect. It depends what you're
talking about. Okay, well, I'll just tell you Spanish fly.
(01:06):
But it turns out I did a little research on this.
Um I found out that Spanish flight is not even
a fly. It's a type of beetle and the active ingredient.
It's actually crushed up, dried and crushed up beetles powdered. Correct.
And the reason they powder the beatles is because they're
trying to get to this um, this acid that the
(01:28):
beetle emits when it's um scared, when it's it's threatened.
And this acid actually, you know, has long been thought
to create amorousness in people. That's correct. I can tell
you the reason they they they thought they were aroused,
They were actually confusing euro genital tract irritation. This stuff
(01:49):
actually burns from the inside out. Yeah, and it can
actually cause kidney damage. And I think convulsion is death.
No Spanish fly, you should never take this for any reason. No,
so of course, you know, as as you know, I
I'd like to do lots of research. It's like my thing,
it is, right, Um. I started researching aphrodisiacs in general,
(02:12):
and here we are at this podcast. Nice intro there,
thank you. I believe the word comes from the Greek
goddess of love, Aphrodite, Is that right? Yeah, that's what
I hear. And an aphrodisiac, by definition, is an element
that evokes or stimulates, uh, sexual desire. Yeah, we should
probably make the distinction because I think a lot of
people think aphrodisiacs um are our performance sexual performance enhancing
(02:36):
compound or whatever, right, and not true at all, Like
a viagra would definitely not be considered an aphrodisiac. No, no,
so uh, but nor would Spanish fly right correct. Well,
let's talk about sexual arousal, Chuck. Okay, all right, let's
just keep it cool, Chuck. If I had a dime
for every time you told me that I would keep
it cooler, Let's talk about sexual arousal. Keeping cool okay, gotcha? Um? So,
(02:58):
Medically speaking, sexual arous us all um begins when we
take in something through one of our senses, um that
that we find sexually stimulating, right, and then all of
a sudden, the limbic globe kicks in, right, That's where
it all starts. This is part of the brain's reward
center and it's activated, and uh, it says, hey, I'm
(03:19):
sexually stimulated. So I'm going to send a neurological signal
through the nervous system down to the blood vessels in
the pelvic area and it says open, sesame, and the
blood vessels open and all this blood comes rushing in
and even better because this wouldn't do a whole lot
the blood vessels close behind this this influx of blood,
(03:41):
so the door shuts essentially, yes, keeping the blood well,
not trapped. But well, yeah, I say trapped is fine, Okay,
I guess that just has a negative implication, right, Well,
whether whether it's trapped or not, what you got is
an erect penis an erection in women as well. Yeah,
I was surprised to find this as well. The clear
is actually goes undergoes a very similar process. And there
(04:04):
you have it. So all of a sudden you are
turned on and basically ready for sex. But that's not it.
There's there's other physiological responses going on when you're when
you're sexually aroused, right, it's what I'm told. Can you
fill me in on those? I certainly can. Well, your
heart rate increases, UM, and pleasure producing chemicals like nora
ep and ephron and dopamine are are suddenly released into
(04:25):
the brain and it's it's go time, that's right. Yeah,
So that that's sexual arousal and UM. For an aphrodisiac
to work, it would have to produce sexual arousal, right, right,
and it could do this in one of two ways,
correct through the mind, like basically recreating that or stimulating
(04:46):
that right absolutely. For instance, something that might increase blood
flow to your sex organs, it might simulate feelings of intercourse,
so that has the effect of creating desire, right okay,
or it can all so we just go straight to
the horse's mouth, right so to speak. Go ahead, Well
it can. It can create increased circulation, increased circulatory flow
(05:08):
in the genitals, and that's actually chemical physical reaction that
takes place. Right. The problem is is UM as far
as our beloved f D A UM Food and Drug Administration. Sure, yeah,
thank you, thank you for that. I was trying to
come up with a peanut butter salmon ella joke but
couldn't write. Maybe too soon. Actually, um, they they they
(05:29):
don't recognize any compound, any UM, any chemical at all
as an aphrodisiac, right, I mean, they've done studies over
the year's plenty of them, but they can't absolutely say
with certainty that one thing is an aphrodisiac or not
because the libido is a hard to define and be
even harder to study. Well, I was also interested to
(05:51):
find out, um, we're not entirely certain how testosterone and
estrogen factor into this. UM. It turns out that you know,
we know at testosterone has an impact on sexual arousal
because men who UM have trouble getting sexual or men
who have low testosterone production have trouble getting sexually aroused.
So we know what factors that we just don't quite
(06:13):
know where UM and testosterone. You know, usually associate estrogen
with women UM, but tests asterone has an effect on
their sexual arousal as well. Women who participated in a
two thousand study at the University of you trecked UM.
They gave them a testosterone sublingually and they found that
(06:34):
UM genital arousal UM increased dramatically in women with low libido. Yeah. Interesting,
so they didn't they didn't report an increase in sexual arousal.
But you know, by extension, you could say, you know, right, well,
I do know that testosterone therapy is something that men
undergo that have a low libido. Yes, whether it's a
cream or I think they have injections, or if they
(06:56):
like to get in bar fights, that's why they do
that too. Yes, Okay, so the FDA doesn't recognize anything,
(07:20):
but there's still plenty of people out there who think
certain foods, certain extracts, plants um are aphrodisiacs. And this
is this is nothing new, like some of these these
ideas go really far back. How far back? Well, it
turns out that the Persians were fairly randy folks. Um.
And and we're talking ancient Persia. Um, I believe pre
(07:42):
Kama Sutra, which came out in uh oh, I don't know.
I'm just gonna go ahead and invite some viewer mail
and say the sixth century a d r. So the
Persians were. They had one um belief that honey it
was an aphrodisiac. And apparently it has no no active
(08:02):
ingredient in it whatsoever that could produce an aphrodisiac effect. Um.
But there is an interesting little tidbit in there, isn't there.
I think you're about the honeymoon. Yes, yes, they would
drink honey for a month after they got married, and
that was called the honeymoonth which later became honeymoon. Is
that right? And if you go by the lunar calendars
(08:25):
the ancient Persians did, then a moon from full moon
to full moon is a month. So yeah, honeymoon. And
even further back I think, um, ancient rome. Yeah, well
that's not further back, it's about the same time. Yeah,
they were big into aphrodisiacs. Um. I think one of
their favorites was oysters, right, Yeah. Oysters usually tops the lists.
(08:46):
When people are going to make a top ten list
of aphrodisiacs, people always put oysters at the top. And
one of the reasons, there's a few reasons. Um. One
of the reasons is is loaded with zinc and zinc
if you don't have enough zinc as a man, then
your sperm can out in your fertility are affected. And
it also has a bunch of iron, and an iron
deficiency could lead you to be too tired, which doesn't
(09:08):
usually lend itself to uh to love making as it were.
And a final reason, and I think this might segue
over to something else, is that a lot of aphrodisiacs
are phallusis that is, they resemble a sex organ, which
one well, an oyster is has been said that it
resembles the female sex organ. Yeah. And I know another
(09:31):
one on the list was avocados, or supposedly an afrodis
favorite because they in fact, I think that's known as
the testicle tree in ancient Rome because they resemble a
man's testicles as tex Aztecs. Yeah, okay, yeah, they grow
in pairs in their wrinkly and that people considered avocados
um aphrodisiacs. Right, And that's a common theme, I know,
(09:53):
you know, um it's something that just resembles a sex organ.
Uh you know, carrots, cucumbers, annas, bananas, um figs. Figs
are said to resemble the female genitalia. Interesting. Um, so yeah,
all these things have long been considered across cultures sometimes
to be aphrodisiacs. Right. It's hard for me to think
(10:16):
that our ancient brothers and sisters were very smart when
you hear about things like this. Now, they were fairly
superstitious folks. Yeah, I mean it just sounds silly at
this point. You know, avocados look like testicle, so if
I eat them, that will make me virile. Well even
even more direct than that, like not they they would
also eat things that didn't just remind them of sex organs.
(10:37):
They would actually eat sex organs of other animals. Yeah,
that's the one I was a little blown away by. So,
like it makes you wonder, like how many countless um
and usually it was an animal that was known for
its prolific um uh copulation, maybe um orrility or strength.
So yeah, it makes you wonder how many um countless
tiger and rabbit and bull penises were eating for the years,
(11:00):
you know, and still it goes on today. Um there's
actually again non FDA approved drugs outside of the US
that still grind up these things. I don't think anybody's
dining on them any longer. But um, yeah, I know
jensing was one of your favorites, right yeah, Um there,
I guess we should say that there are some things
out there that could conceivably be aprodes acts. They could
(11:23):
produce sexual arousal right, right, they actually affect affect you chemically,
but yeah, they don't know if it's enough to Actually
I think that's where the gray area is exactly like
it's there, But could it really have any you know,
noticeable effect. Um. And one of those is jen sing
And there was a study that they they they I
(11:43):
don't remember who conducted it, but they tested men, they
gave them jensing and then they tested them, uh using
the Mean International Index of erectile function, and uh it
was shown to increase score. So enough said, jensing works.
Do you have it? Yeah, it's always a mood booster
(12:04):
two right, Yeah, I think it's an energy booster. Well, ye,
stuff which is actually pretty tasty. Is it a lot
of the aphrodisiacs They say. It may not be a
direct like chemical correlation to your you know, pelvic region,
but it'll do things like give you energy and a
sort of a two B two. See. If it gives
you energy, then you're more likely to be aroused and
(12:24):
in the mood for intercourse, whereas if something SAPs your energy,
you're going to be you know, like if you eat
a a lasagna by yourself, it's probably not gonna inspire
you to unless you're Henry the eighth or something. I guess, right, well, yeah,
and you make a valid point. Um, it's just that
science hates it when you jump from A to C exactly.
You know, even if there is a direct correlation or
(12:46):
causation that they really like to get that be in
place first, you know. Um. But yeah, so in Jensing
is not the only one. There's a there's other. Like
you said, oysters are full of zinc and iron and
other stuff. Um, and chocolate actually, which is always associated
with love and romance. Um that it actually has fennal
ethel mean and uh serotonin. So these things are actually
(13:10):
an abundance of ply And we can't ingest these things.
Our body produces these naturally, but um, we can ingest
them and react to them conceivably. It makes you wonder
how much chocolate you'd have to eat to really get off,
like perhaps like several goblets full. Josh, I think you're
talking about Mona Zuma, who was the Aztec ruler who
reportedly would drink like fifty goblets of chocolate a day
(13:33):
to increase his sexual desire. I cannot believe he died
from being murdered and beheaded right and exploding right. Definitely,
chocolates nicely done. Should we talk about smell? I think
(14:12):
we should because I gotta tell you, if I put
stock into any um afrodisiac, it would have to be
it would have to have something to do with smell. Yeah,
it's not always food, it's not always tastes. I know
they say that like music and exercise can be afrodisacs. Sure, well, yeah,
I can tell you um that swimming just the release
of endorphins actually is it definitely increases um interest. Interesting,
(14:37):
is that sterile enough of the word. It is very
very well done there, josh uh. If we're talking smell
um Dr Hirsch, Dr Alan Hirsch of the Smell and
Taste Treatment and Research Center in Chicago. Yeah, that's a
good center. Um. He did a study that looked at
different smells and as we were talking about the other day,
you like to say, he he spent a career wafting
(14:58):
smells under men's noses to see what stimulated them and
measuring their penises. That's right, at the same time, and
he found some interesting things. Um, cheese pizza, for instance,
increased blood flow to the penis by five, buttered popcorn
by nine. And then the one that really shocked me, lavender,
and then pumpkin pie actually increased blood flow by which
(15:23):
that's pretty big. You could overcome a lot of sluggishness
with with that much blood and fusion, right, But that
kind of to me. And Thanksgiving was when you pumpkin pile.
Lot of times that flies right in the face of
eating turkey and watching football and stuff in your belly.
And actually, pumpkin pie didn't just have an effect on men,
had a big effect on women. But the top or
(15:43):
the biggest. The biggest one actually is a combination of
sense that aroused women is a combination of the horrid
and discussing black licorice flavored good and plenty candies mixed
with cucumber smell. It drives the women patty right, So,
long story short, I keep those things in my glove compartment.
(16:06):
A cucumber garden in your yard. Yes, actually it's growing
in my back seat. Wow, that's I have nothing else
to say. I don't think there's anything else say, but
I do. Actually, I do have more to say. Let's
hit pheromones up real quick. Oh yeah, this is you're
all over this. So pheromones basically have long been identified
as like a way that maybe we attract one another.
Remember that awesome study you told me about. I can't
(16:28):
remember what podcast it was, but they they had women
um wearing shirts for like a week and then they
had guys smell the shirts right to determine their level
of attraction by smell. Right, Yeah, and it was right
on the money. Yeah. Well, if if it was right
on the money, then they really looked out. Because you
need a U a a extrasensory organ that not all
(16:51):
of us humans have. A vemarone nasal organ never heard
of it? Okay, Well, basically it's like, uh, it's like
an addition to our to our olfactory nerve our noses basically,
and we can pick out packets of information from pheromones. Uh.
I don't know if we can necessarily, that's never been proven,
(17:12):
but in the animal kingdom it's very prevalent, uh so.
And they pheromones are produced and emitted through urine. Right,
So if your dog spray somewhere and then another dog
comes along and just can't stop sniffing, what the other
dogs doing is actually determining the health of the uh
the urinating dogs um immune system and also determining if
(17:36):
it would be a good match to produce offspring, because apparently,
ultimately what you want when you mate with another persons
as far as animalistically speaking, um, you are looking for
somebody with a compatible but opposite immune system so that
the offspring you produce has the resistance to the most
(17:56):
disease as possible. Well in the same in humans. That's
what the original smells from the other podcast, right, um.
But yeah, the problem is is not all of us
have that vemorone nasal oregan um, but There was a
study that that what we emit pheromones in our sweat,
by the way, are urine, which is good for us,
because yeah, it'd be we'd have a different society if
(18:19):
if that were the case. Well, there was a study.
It was a kind of an informal study. Um and uh.
These guys sprayed um pheromones on one member of a
set of twin girls and popped the two of them
side by side at a bar on a Saturday night
and waited to see if there was a difference in
which one was hit on more. The one that got
(18:40):
the boost of pheromones was picked up three times more
than are identical yet untreated twin sister. So the girl
that was laced with pheromones very cool. So pheromones ephrodesiacs.
I feel like I've gotten a lot off my chest, right.
I know. They a lot of people believe in efforts X,
(19:00):
but the scientific community, the FDA, as you said, does
not support it. In the scientific community thinks there's also
a likelihood that it just could be a placebo. If
you if you think you eat an oyster and you're
gonna feel a little more inspired, uh, sexually than you're
gonna eat the oyster and feel inspired. And hey, you
know what if that if even if you're just fooling
yourself whatever, I say that and justifies the means in
(19:22):
that case Placebo's work. Yeah, well good, okay, Now is
a listener real time? Yes, let's get on with it, Josh.
I think we're gonna pull the train into Limerick Junction. Yeah,
I liked. I like this trend. We went from Haikus
the Limericks. I don't know what's next. Uh, I don't
know and uh an epic poem. Maybe. No, we're gonna
(19:46):
get the iliad from some listener now, just a couple
of limericks here. Ryan of Victoria, British Columbia, fine Canadian friend.
Have you ever been there? Now? That's one of my
favorite cities on the planet. I've heard it's awesome. It
is awesome. Was very cool. Everybody's very friendly. It's like
a tiny city with like many skyscrapers and everything. And
this is awesome. It's Brittish Columbia too, so sure nice?
(20:10):
All right? Ryan has this to say. As I wore
an uncomfortable sweater, I sat down and wrote you this letter.
Josh and Chuck love hikus, but hiku's make me snooze
because we all know that limericks are better. Yes, that's
a good one, Ryan. And the final limerick today is
from Brendan Franklin of Tucson, Arizona, another cool town college town,
(20:31):
the podcasting host Josh and Chuck and the cast that
they host or don't suck. They tell me how stuff works,
and as one of the perks, I'm no longer an
ignorant schmuck. Nice and Brendan, we agree. You're not an
ignoran schmuck. You're you also may be the first person
on the plant ever you schmuck in Limerick? Oh, no way,
(20:52):
huge and Limerick clan is it? I'm not very familiar
with him. I guess I should say I'm surprised that
we haven't gotten any dirty limericks yet, though, although now
I think we could probably expect true. I'm just happy
my name rhymes with schmuck. Yeah, well we knew that already. Yes, So,
if you want to send Chuck and I a limerick
not a Hi kup um, or if you just want
(21:13):
to say hi, or if you'd like to just congratulate
us on making it through, how aphrodisiacs work without humiliating
ourselves by cracking up um. You can send us an
email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
(21:34):
it how stuff works dot com
How do you everybody happy Saturday morning? I hope you
have watched your cartoons and have a belly full of
sugary cereal, because right now you're about to listen to
our episode on afrods X from March twelve nine. That's right, everyone, Uh,
lock the kids away, don't let him here because this
one's all about food and drink. That makes you. Uh
(00:23):
what the birds say, Randy, I believe so so please
to enjoy everyone Affords X. Right now, welcome to Stuff
you should know from house stuff Works dot com. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant.
(00:44):
Welcome yourself, buddy. Welcome Josh, Thank you Chuck. Sure that
felt pretty good? Actually did it? Just try it? Try it?
Welcome yourself. Welcome Chuck. How do you feel relaxed? Good? Good? Yeah,
it has a nice effect. It does you know what
it doesn't have a nice effect. It depends what you're
talking about. Okay, well, I'll just tell you Spanish fly.
(01:06):
But it turns out I did a little research on this.
Um I found out that Spanish flight is not even
a fly. It's a type of beetle and the active ingredient.
It's actually crushed up, dried and crushed up beetles powdered. Correct.
And the reason they powder the beatles is because they're
trying to get to this um, this acid that the
(01:28):
beetle emits when it's um scared, when it's it's threatened.
And this acid actually, you know, has long been thought
to create amorousness in people. That's correct. I can tell
you the reason they they they thought they were aroused,
They were actually confusing euro genital tract irritation. This stuff
(01:49):
actually burns from the inside out. Yeah, and it can
actually cause kidney damage. And I think convulsion is death.
No Spanish fly, you should never take this for any reason. No,
so of course, you know, as as you know, I
I'd like to do lots of research. It's like my thing,
it is, right, Um. I started researching aphrodisiacs in general,
(02:12):
and here we are at this podcast. Nice intro there,
thank you. I believe the word comes from the Greek
goddess of love, Aphrodite, Is that right? Yeah, that's what
I hear. And an aphrodisiac, by definition, is an element
that evokes or stimulates, uh, sexual desire. Yeah, we should
probably make the distinction because I think a lot of
people think aphrodisiacs um are our performance sexual performance enhancing
(02:36):
compound or whatever, right, and not true at all, Like
a viagra would definitely not be considered an aphrodisiac. No, no,
so uh, but nor would Spanish fly right correct. Well,
let's talk about sexual arousal, Chuck. Okay, all right, let's
just keep it cool, Chuck. If I had a dime
for every time you told me that I would keep
it cooler, Let's talk about sexual arousal. Keeping cool okay, gotcha? Um? So,
(02:58):
Medically speaking, sexual arous us all um begins when we
take in something through one of our senses, um that
that we find sexually stimulating, right, and then all of
a sudden, the limbic globe kicks in, right, That's where
it all starts. This is part of the brain's reward
center and it's activated, and uh, it says, hey, I'm
(03:19):
sexually stimulated. So I'm going to send a neurological signal
through the nervous system down to the blood vessels in
the pelvic area and it says open, sesame, and the
blood vessels open and all this blood comes rushing in
and even better because this wouldn't do a whole lot
the blood vessels close behind this this influx of blood,
(03:41):
so the door shuts essentially, yes, keeping the blood well,
not trapped. But well, yeah, I say trapped is fine, Okay,
I guess that just has a negative implication, right, Well,
whether whether it's trapped or not, what you got is
an erect penis an erection in women as well. Yeah,
I was surprised to find this as well. The clear
is actually goes undergoes a very similar process. And there
(04:04):
you have it. So all of a sudden you are
turned on and basically ready for sex. But that's not it.
There's there's other physiological responses going on when you're when
you're sexually aroused, right, it's what I'm told. Can you
fill me in on those? I certainly can. Well, your
heart rate increases, UM, and pleasure producing chemicals like nora
ep and ephron and dopamine are are suddenly released into
(04:25):
the brain and it's it's go time, that's right. Yeah,
So that that's sexual arousal and UM. For an aphrodisiac
to work, it would have to produce sexual arousal, right, right,
and it could do this in one of two ways,
correct through the mind, like basically recreating that or stimulating
(04:46):
that right absolutely. For instance, something that might increase blood
flow to your sex organs, it might simulate feelings of intercourse,
so that has the effect of creating desire, right okay,
or it can all so we just go straight to
the horse's mouth, right so to speak. Go ahead, Well
it can. It can create increased circulation, increased circulatory flow
(05:08):
in the genitals, and that's actually chemical physical reaction that
takes place. Right. The problem is is UM as far
as our beloved f D A UM Food and Drug Administration. Sure, yeah,
thank you, thank you for that. I was trying to
come up with a peanut butter salmon ella joke but
couldn't write. Maybe too soon. Actually, um, they they they
(05:29):
don't recognize any compound, any UM, any chemical at all
as an aphrodisiac, right, I mean, they've done studies over
the year's plenty of them, but they can't absolutely say
with certainty that one thing is an aphrodisiac or not
because the libido is a hard to define and be
even harder to study. Well, I was also interested to
(05:51):
find out, um, we're not entirely certain how testosterone and
estrogen factor into this. UM. It turns out that you know,
we know at testosterone has an impact on sexual arousal
because men who UM have trouble getting sexual or men
who have low testosterone production have trouble getting sexually aroused.
So we know what factors that we just don't quite
(06:13):
know where UM and testosterone. You know, usually associate estrogen
with women UM, but tests asterone has an effect on
their sexual arousal as well. Women who participated in a
two thousand study at the University of you trecked UM.
They gave them a testosterone sublingually and they found that
(06:34):
UM genital arousal UM increased dramatically in women with low libido. Yeah. Interesting,
so they didn't they didn't report an increase in sexual arousal.
But you know, by extension, you could say, you know, right, well,
I do know that testosterone therapy is something that men
undergo that have a low libido. Yes, whether it's a
cream or I think they have injections, or if they
(06:56):
like to get in bar fights, that's why they do
that too. Yes, Okay, so the FDA doesn't recognize anything,
(07:20):
but there's still plenty of people out there who think
certain foods, certain extracts, plants um are aphrodisiacs. And this
is this is nothing new, like some of these these
ideas go really far back. How far back? Well, it
turns out that the Persians were fairly randy folks. Um.
And and we're talking ancient Persia. Um, I believe pre
(07:42):
Kama Sutra, which came out in uh oh, I don't know.
I'm just gonna go ahead and invite some viewer mail
and say the sixth century a d r. So the
Persians were. They had one um belief that honey it
was an aphrodisiac. And apparently it has no no active
(08:02):
ingredient in it whatsoever that could produce an aphrodisiac effect. Um.
But there is an interesting little tidbit in there, isn't there.
I think you're about the honeymoon. Yes, yes, they would
drink honey for a month after they got married, and
that was called the honeymoonth which later became honeymoon. Is
that right? And if you go by the lunar calendars
(08:25):
the ancient Persians did, then a moon from full moon
to full moon is a month. So yeah, honeymoon. And
even further back I think, um, ancient rome. Yeah, well
that's not further back, it's about the same time. Yeah,
they were big into aphrodisiacs. Um. I think one of
their favorites was oysters, right, Yeah. Oysters usually tops the lists.
(08:46):
When people are going to make a top ten list
of aphrodisiacs, people always put oysters at the top. And
one of the reasons, there's a few reasons. Um. One
of the reasons is is loaded with zinc and zinc
if you don't have enough zinc as a man, then
your sperm can out in your fertility are affected. And
it also has a bunch of iron, and an iron
deficiency could lead you to be too tired, which doesn't
(09:08):
usually lend itself to uh to love making as it were.
And a final reason, and I think this might segue
over to something else, is that a lot of aphrodisiacs
are phallusis that is, they resemble a sex organ, which
one well, an oyster is has been said that it
resembles the female sex organ. Yeah. And I know another
(09:31):
one on the list was avocados, or supposedly an afrodis
favorite because they in fact, I think that's known as
the testicle tree in ancient Rome because they resemble a
man's testicles as tex Aztecs. Yeah, okay, yeah, they grow
in pairs in their wrinkly and that people considered avocados
um aphrodisiacs. Right, And that's a common theme, I know,
(09:53):
you know, um it's something that just resembles a sex organ.
Uh you know, carrots, cucumbers, annas, bananas, um figs. Figs
are said to resemble the female genitalia. Interesting. Um, so yeah,
all these things have long been considered across cultures sometimes
to be aphrodisiacs. Right. It's hard for me to think
(10:16):
that our ancient brothers and sisters were very smart when
you hear about things like this. Now, they were fairly
superstitious folks. Yeah, I mean it just sounds silly at
this point. You know, avocados look like testicle, so if
I eat them, that will make me virile. Well even
even more direct than that, like not they they would
also eat things that didn't just remind them of sex organs.
(10:37):
They would actually eat sex organs of other animals. Yeah,
that's the one I was a little blown away by. So,
like it makes you wonder, like how many countless um
and usually it was an animal that was known for
its prolific um uh copulation, maybe um orrility or strength.
So yeah, it makes you wonder how many um countless
tiger and rabbit and bull penises were eating for the years,
(11:00):
you know, and still it goes on today. Um there's
actually again non FDA approved drugs outside of the US
that still grind up these things. I don't think anybody's
dining on them any longer. But um, yeah, I know
jensing was one of your favorites, right yeah, Um there,
I guess we should say that there are some things
out there that could conceivably be aprodes acts. They could
(11:23):
produce sexual arousal right, right, they actually affect affect you chemically,
but yeah, they don't know if it's enough to Actually
I think that's where the gray area is exactly like
it's there, But could it really have any you know,
noticeable effect. Um. And one of those is jen sing
And there was a study that they they they I
(11:43):
don't remember who conducted it, but they tested men, they
gave them jensing and then they tested them, uh using
the Mean International Index of erectile function, and uh it
was shown to increase score. So enough said, jensing works.
Do you have it? Yeah, it's always a mood booster
(12:04):
two right, Yeah, I think it's an energy booster. Well, ye,
stuff which is actually pretty tasty. Is it a lot
of the aphrodisiacs They say. It may not be a
direct like chemical correlation to your you know, pelvic region,
but it'll do things like give you energy and a
sort of a two B two. See. If it gives
you energy, then you're more likely to be aroused and
(12:24):
in the mood for intercourse, whereas if something SAPs your energy,
you're going to be you know, like if you eat
a a lasagna by yourself, it's probably not gonna inspire
you to unless you're Henry the eighth or something. I guess, right, well, yeah,
and you make a valid point. Um, it's just that
science hates it when you jump from A to C exactly.
You know, even if there is a direct correlation or
(12:46):
causation that they really like to get that be in
place first, you know. Um. But yeah, so in Jensing
is not the only one. There's a there's other. Like
you said, oysters are full of zinc and iron and
other stuff. Um, and chocolate actually, which is always associated
with love and romance. Um that it actually has fennal
ethel mean and uh serotonin. So these things are actually
(13:10):
an abundance of ply And we can't ingest these things.
Our body produces these naturally, but um, we can ingest
them and react to them conceivably. It makes you wonder
how much chocolate you'd have to eat to really get off,
like perhaps like several goblets full. Josh, I think you're
talking about Mona Zuma, who was the Aztec ruler who
reportedly would drink like fifty goblets of chocolate a day
(13:33):
to increase his sexual desire. I cannot believe he died
from being murdered and beheaded right and exploding right. Definitely,
chocolates nicely done. Should we talk about smell? I think
(14:12):
we should because I gotta tell you, if I put
stock into any um afrodisiac, it would have to be
it would have to have something to do with smell. Yeah,
it's not always food, it's not always tastes. I know
they say that like music and exercise can be afrodisacs. Sure, well, yeah,
I can tell you um that swimming just the release
of endorphins actually is it definitely increases um interest. Interesting,
(14:37):
is that sterile enough of the word. It is very
very well done there, josh uh. If we're talking smell
um Dr Hirsch, Dr Alan Hirsch of the Smell and
Taste Treatment and Research Center in Chicago. Yeah, that's a
good center. Um. He did a study that looked at
different smells and as we were talking about the other day,
you like to say, he he spent a career wafting
(14:58):
smells under men's noses to see what stimulated them and
measuring their penises. That's right, at the same time, and
he found some interesting things. Um, cheese pizza, for instance,
increased blood flow to the penis by five, buttered popcorn
by nine. And then the one that really shocked me, lavender,
and then pumpkin pie actually increased blood flow by which
(15:23):
that's pretty big. You could overcome a lot of sluggishness
with with that much blood and fusion, right, But that
kind of to me. And Thanksgiving was when you pumpkin pile.
Lot of times that flies right in the face of
eating turkey and watching football and stuff in your belly.
And actually, pumpkin pie didn't just have an effect on men,
had a big effect on women. But the top or
(15:43):
the biggest. The biggest one actually is a combination of
sense that aroused women is a combination of the horrid
and discussing black licorice flavored good and plenty candies mixed
with cucumber smell. It drives the women patty right, So,
long story short, I keep those things in my glove compartment.
(16:06):
A cucumber garden in your yard. Yes, actually it's growing
in my back seat. Wow, that's I have nothing else
to say. I don't think there's anything else say, but
I do. Actually, I do have more to say. Let's
hit pheromones up real quick. Oh yeah, this is you're
all over this. So pheromones basically have long been identified
as like a way that maybe we attract one another.
Remember that awesome study you told me about. I can't
(16:28):
remember what podcast it was, but they they had women
um wearing shirts for like a week and then they
had guys smell the shirts right to determine their level
of attraction by smell. Right, Yeah, and it was right
on the money. Yeah. Well, if if it was right
on the money, then they really looked out. Because you
need a U a a extrasensory organ that not all
(16:51):
of us humans have. A vemarone nasal organ never heard
of it? Okay, Well, basically it's like, uh, it's like
an addition to our to our olfactory nerve our noses basically,
and we can pick out packets of information from pheromones. Uh.
I don't know if we can necessarily, that's never been proven,
(17:12):
but in the animal kingdom it's very prevalent, uh so.
And they pheromones are produced and emitted through urine. Right,
So if your dog spray somewhere and then another dog
comes along and just can't stop sniffing, what the other
dogs doing is actually determining the health of the uh
the urinating dogs um immune system and also determining if
(17:36):
it would be a good match to produce offspring, because apparently,
ultimately what you want when you mate with another persons
as far as animalistically speaking, um, you are looking for
somebody with a compatible but opposite immune system so that
the offspring you produce has the resistance to the most
(17:56):
disease as possible. Well in the same in humans. That's
what the original smells from the other podcast, right, um.
But yeah, the problem is is not all of us
have that vemorone nasal oregan um, but There was a
study that that what we emit pheromones in our sweat,
by the way, are urine, which is good for us,
because yeah, it'd be we'd have a different society if
(18:19):
if that were the case. Well, there was a study.
It was a kind of an informal study. Um and uh.
These guys sprayed um pheromones on one member of a
set of twin girls and popped the two of them
side by side at a bar on a Saturday night
and waited to see if there was a difference in
which one was hit on more. The one that got
(18:40):
the boost of pheromones was picked up three times more
than are identical yet untreated twin sister. So the girl
that was laced with pheromones very cool. So pheromones ephrodesiacs.
I feel like I've gotten a lot off my chest, right.
I know. They a lot of people believe in efforts X,
(19:00):
but the scientific community, the FDA, as you said, does
not support it. In the scientific community thinks there's also
a likelihood that it just could be a placebo. If
you if you think you eat an oyster and you're
gonna feel a little more inspired, uh, sexually than you're
gonna eat the oyster and feel inspired. And hey, you
know what if that if even if you're just fooling
yourself whatever, I say that and justifies the means in
(19:22):
that case Placebo's work. Yeah, well good, okay, Now is
a listener real time? Yes, let's get on with it, Josh.
I think we're gonna pull the train into Limerick Junction. Yeah,
I liked. I like this trend. We went from Haikus
the Limericks. I don't know what's next. Uh, I don't
know and uh an epic poem. Maybe. No, we're gonna
(19:46):
get the iliad from some listener now, just a couple
of limericks here. Ryan of Victoria, British Columbia, fine Canadian friend.
Have you ever been there? Now? That's one of my
favorite cities on the planet. I've heard it's awesome. It
is awesome. Was very cool. Everybody's very friendly. It's like
a tiny city with like many skyscrapers and everything. And
this is awesome. It's Brittish Columbia too, so sure nice?
(20:10):
All right? Ryan has this to say. As I wore
an uncomfortable sweater, I sat down and wrote you this letter.
Josh and Chuck love hikus, but hiku's make me snooze
because we all know that limericks are better. Yes, that's
a good one, Ryan. And the final limerick today is
from Brendan Franklin of Tucson, Arizona, another cool town college town,
(20:31):
the podcasting host Josh and Chuck and the cast that
they host or don't suck. They tell me how stuff works,
and as one of the perks, I'm no longer an
ignorant schmuck. Nice and Brendan, we agree. You're not an
ignoran schmuck. You're you also may be the first person
on the plant ever you schmuck in Limerick? Oh, no way,
(20:52):
huge and Limerick clan is it? I'm not very familiar
with him. I guess I should say I'm surprised that
we haven't gotten any dirty limericks yet, though, although now
I think we could probably expect true. I'm just happy
my name rhymes with schmuck. Yeah, well we knew that already. Yes, So,
if you want to send Chuck and I a limerick
not a Hi kup um, or if you just want
(21:13):
to say hi, or if you'd like to just congratulate
us on making it through, how aphrodisiacs work without humiliating
ourselves by cracking up um. You can send us an
email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
(21:34):
it how stuff works dot com
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