On the occasion of “National Impotence Day” (February 14, same as Valentine’s Day), the British newspaper, The Independent, offered some tips on how to boost one’s sex drive.

First they explained “la difference” in the way men and women *can’t* do it. Apparently, for men, the problem is “hydraulic,” whereas for women, “it’s mostly in their heads.” (I’ll drink to that, at least to the first part. Everything with men is hydraulic. See my posting on Penile Mechanics.)

Various aphrodisiacs are then presented, but I want to focus on the food. Most interesting to me was this:

“It’s the smell of food rather than its constituent parts that gets men in the mood, says the neurologist Alan Hirsch, the founder of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. He measured the effects of aromas on penile blood flow and found that American men responded best to doughnuts, pizza, popcorn and strawberries. Men, he concluded, are turned on by smells that evoke the security and pleasure of childhood.”

Ladies, I would be careful about trying this at home. Smelling will lead to eating, and all those carbs will lull the man to sleep.