January 19th, 2022

Full Body Yum

Are there any greater sensory experiences than sex and food? Each tantalizes and teases for uniquely different reasons. Sex encapsulates the physical sensation of pleasure brought alive and heightened, accessible through all of our senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing and vision. Food satisfies our primal desires primarily through taste, smell and vision, with hearing and touch incorporated under certain circumstances. And when you put sex and food together, you get a sublime experience that fulfills our deepest erotic cravings: Orgastronomy.

But what is it about food combined with sex that makes both even sexier? Throughout the ages, certain foods have stood as symbolic phallic totems (zucchini, banana, cucumber), vaginal/breast totems (peaches, papaya, melons) and elements of sexuality, such as virginity (cherries). Food has always stood as a representation of the physical and theoretical aspects of sexuality, so it stands to reason incorporating the additional sensory experience of flavors, texture, and temperature inherent to food would create an elevated, deepened ecstasy.
  
Beyond the symbolism, there is a scientific basis to why food and sex trigger the same carnal sensations: both the act of eating and sex engage the same part of the brain, the orbitofrontal cortex. Whenever we taste something or experience orgasm, this section of the brain that sits directly above our eye sockets is keyed into our brain’s sensory sections, and tied to our limbic system, which houses our emotional and behavior responses. It is also associated with memory and learning, and as one of the least understood parts of the brain, it’s suspected that it builds the bridges that assist our bodies in developing its hedonistic concepts of pleasure and reward through sensory experience. It makes sense that our brains, channeling the perceptions created by eating or coitus, have developed a yawning library throughout the ages of what stimulates in a satisfying means, this information stored in a center responsible for our basic survival and remembrances.
 
We are walking encyclopedias of all that has come before, so it stands to reason that culture and customs around the relationship between food and sex have a long, deep history which informs why our brains employ physical responses to certain fare in the form of aphrodisiacs, and why we romanticize and develop legends around the impotence of certain foods.
 
Each month, this blog will seek out and delve into a different aspect of this fascinating relationship between our mouths, our bodies and our souls, and find ways that deepen our satisfaction for all. So sit back, relax, and let me seduce your senses on this savory, erotic ride…Orgastronomy is going to blow your mind.