Food for Love

The Food of Love

---

She is happily married possibly even a smug happily married! Being a mum to teenage girls is a tough job I know!!! She shows a family desperate to understand what is happening to their child and their utter helplessness in a situation that is totally beyond their control. She writes about characters who could be any one of our friends or family…. She has a gift for understanding family dynamics and making her fictional families feel like real people. This is another triumph for Amanda Prowse. From the moment I saw that breathtakingly beautiful cover I knew this was going to be one of the most heartbreaking and emotive portraits of a normal family thrown into turmoil that I have ever read.

Full review to follow. View all 11 comments. I received a copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for a fair and honest review.

This turned out to be a much darker read than I was imagining as it deals with the devastating effects that an eating disorder has on a family. The Braithwaite family seem to be the perfect family - a loving couple, Freya and Lockie, and their two daughters, Charlotte and Lexi. Even the teenage girls squabbling seems to fit the normality of the family, but it soon becomes clear that one of the daught I received a copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for a fair and honest review.

Even the teenage girls squabbling seems to fit the normality of the family, but it soon becomes clear that one of the daughters, Lexi, is hiding a very big secret from the rest of her family. And when that secret is revealed we get to see just how it affects every member of the family. I haven't read many books that discuss the topic of anorexia and bulimia and this story reveals the brutality of the illness - from the many ways in which the sufferer goes to hide the problems, to how the parents and sister try and deal with getting through to their loved one.

Navigation menu

I did find myself not finding much empathy with the mother Freya. While she struggled to find ways to get through to her daughter, all she seemed to do is push the medical opinions away and think that she could fix the problem by just pandering to her daughter and keeping her at home, when she clearly needed more medical help. I understand that most parents don't know how to deal with such issues but they often seemed to stick their heads in the sand and hope the problem would 'go away'. I also found myself feeling sympathy for the other sister, Charlotte, as she was often forgotten about and left to deal with her own issues by herself and be an afterthought while her parents were too busy dealing with how the illness made them feel, and look as parents.

It was an eye-opening read and did keep my attention as the struggles the family go through were moving, although I would have liked to have seem more from Lexi's point of view maybe to try and understand more and think this would have added an extra dimension to the story. Though we're at the end of the year now and I've read so many good books through out this year, 'Another Love' is definitely one of my top 5 releases.

Naturally, loving Amanda's writing so much, I was very excited to read her latest book, 'The Food of Love'.

This book is among the last I'll read this year if not even the last , so I do like the symbolism, starting and ending with a book by one of my favourite authors. Needless to say I had really high hopes for this book. I know this might seem like a terrible pressure for the authors, but it comes with the territory. No matter how much I try to have as little expectations as possible for a book, it's very hard to persist especially if it's from an author I love. If you've read Amanda's books or at least some of them you'd know that Amanda is not the kind of author who does fluff and all her books explore difficult topics.

If there's one thing I admire most about her writing is that courage to dive into subjects which are so difficult to explore, creating characters the readers will not necessarily like or in the best case, which can be easily misunderstood. As I previously said, I adored 'Another Love' which explores the subject of alcoholism and the impact it had on a whole family. I was reading that book with tears in my eyes and I felt such compassion for the main character I haven't felt for any other in a very long time.

When I read the blurb of 'the Food of Love' and realised it's about another heavy topic, anorexia, I prepared myself emotionally as I knew what I'm in for. Now after I've read, I must say I was slightly disappointed. But not in the emotional effect it lacked, because I was deeply moved by the story and what the family goes through. However, I strongly disagree with some of the choices the characters made by this I mean Freya, Lexi's mum. But let me start from the beginning and how a solid, happy family was shattered to pieces.

Freya is happily married and has two lovely daughters, Charlotte and Lexi. Lexi's always been the slightly chubby one, loving the food her mum made. And boy, does Freya love cooking. Writing articles on food, she's always in the kitchen preparing not only tasty but very healthy foods. However, at the age of 14 Lexi starts changing, eating less and less The most confusing thing for me was that Freya didn't really know or feel any of these changes, until one day she's called to Lexi's school hearing that her daughter might be having anorexia.

She wasn't even familiar with these terms, anorexia, bulimia A mother always knows, e? She was so wrong and soon, Lexi is on the verge of weighting just about 70 pounds and everything goes downhill. Lexi's health, the family's stability, Freya's marriage As you see, this is a hard book to read. No matter if you or anyone you know hasn't experienced these issues, it's still hard to read. Amanda's so descriptive when it comes to the state the whole family is in, there were times when I had to put the book down as I felt my stomach in knots. Still, this is a good thing, I could feel the pain Lexi was going through and all those desperate acts of her trying to deceive her parents and doctors.

However, the thing which confused me was that I didn't really understand the emotional reasons for Lexi's anorexia. Maybe I've missed it in the book or it wasn't enough emphasized, but what were the reasons that made Lexi torture herself like this? I didn't find any strong reasons in the book, didn't read about any severe trauma, bullying of any sort I'm no expert on anorexia, but I've gone thorough some periods in my life when my diet was anything but healthy. I've been through periods when I would stuff myself with food or eat as little as cals a day The control I was losing in situations, I would try to gain back by monitoring carefully my food intake.

What are Lexi's deeper reasons for starving herself?

However, there are many things I liked too. My favourite character was Charlotte and I see many reviewers feel the same who's role isn't that big deserves more space in my opinion, maybe in another book? While I wasn't that big a fan of Freya, my heart was breaking for her since as a mother I know she has the best intentions at heart. There's a part in the book, when Freya talks to Lexi while watching the sky and stars commenting how we are all made of stardust and what would the other do If someone decided to leave and 'see what's on the other side of the Universe'.

Now that's a hard conversation for a mother or anyone for that matter to have and I burst into tears. Big, heavy, ugly tears. Whether you like or dislike Freya, whether you agree or disagree with the choices she makes which I won't reveal as not to spoil the book for you , one thing is for sure - this book will make you think a lot. Even more so if you're a parent. Do we really know our kids that well? What are the boundaries and until when should one tolerate someone's behavior?

Teenagers might think they know it all, but there's a good reason they don't get their vote on many things. If you're like me, prepare yourself for an emotional ride and have those tissues ready. While 'Another Love' is still my favourite book by Amanda read my review here , I'm most definitely looking forward to reading more books by her. As Amanda is one of the most prolific authors I've had the chance to read, I have no doubts there'll be a new book out very soon.

I honestly don't think a lot of this book. It's not terrible, but it's nowhere near the best book about anorexia that I've ever read. It feels like someone did a lot of research on anorexia and then just wrote a story about what they think it's like to have a suffering family member.

I didn't feel the characters were that fleshed out and there just wasn't a lot of meat in the story. I also had a lot of issues with the mother, who was much more interested in being a friend to her daughter than in I honestly don't think a lot of this book. I also had a lot of issues with the mother, who was much more interested in being a friend to her daughter than in being a mother.

I don't understand parents who firmly believe their teenagers would never ever lie to them, about anything, or who feel that they know better than any doctor. The moment I find out my 5'6" daughter weighs only 87 lbs is the moment that kid is admitted into the hospital. She doesn't want a feeding tube inserted? Save the kid's life first and then deal with the psychological reasons, but if you don't get her fed then there won't be anything to help. This mother is in denial until the girl is a moment away from dying in her arms.

And there's an hour by hour countdown throughout the book, leading up to something The epilogue as well annoyed me. The book as a whole is a sort of serious story set as a light and fluffy read. I was never able to care whether the daughter lived or died, and I mostly just wanted to shake the mother. It's not terrible, it's just not a very good book. The Food of Love is a difficult story to read, and I am not quite sure how to review it.

The story touches on some very complicated issues, so I will give it a bit of a think before I write a longer review. For now, I'll just say I recommend it! Find more reviews and bookish fun at http: Originally reviewed on Becca's Books. There's Freya, the loving, caring and kind mother. At first glance, this family are just like any other. Busy with work and school, but still managing to find the time to care and nurture for their family. They're both head over heels in love with each other, which of course radiates over the rest of the family.

She's got everything that she ever hoped for and more. As always, with Amanda Prowse's novels, the subjects that the author writes about are handled with the upmost respect. It's clear that this author does her research in order to get the facts spot on, and that was definitely the case in The Food of Love. This is her family. She's done her absolute best to take care of them all and ensure that something like this can never happen. This novel isn't only about anorexia.

Prowse focuses and zooms in on the devastating and heart-breaking effects that this horrible illness has on the families of those that it affects, and the separate relationships within those families. This was absolutely superb, with so much heart, warmth, and a whole lot of love. Moving on a whole new level, and educational too, this is a must-read from Amanda Prowse. In The Food of Love, Amanda Prowse has written another superb insight into a normal family whose life has been unexpectedly and dramatically turned upside down.

Freya is very content with her family and her life. She adores her two teenage daughters and is still crazy about her husband Lockie. Then, out of the blue, their happy family is sent reeling when it becomes apparent that her youngest daughter Lexi is having issues with food. This is particularly ironic as Freya is a food writer and Lock In The Food of Love, Amanda Prowse has written another superb insight into a normal family whose life has been unexpectedly and dramatically turned upside down.

This is particularly ironic as Freya is a food writer and Lockie photographs food for magazines. She has always tried to make sure that her family eats healthily and it hasn't crossed her mind that anyone in the family would ever have problems with food. The book follows the heart-breaking journey of the family as Lexi's battle with food takes her to the brink and back so many times.

What Amanda Prowse does so brilliantly as always, is to write about a family which could easily be mine or yours. I have two teenage daughters pretty much Charlotte and Lexi's age and I have been married for 19 years, just like Freya and Lockie. Anyone with teenage daughters will know how important body image is to them and will know doubt worry about the unrealistic images presented in the media. They will also know, like Freya, how sometimes you feel like you are walking on eggshells trying to give advice without coming across as preachy.

I could sympathise with Lockie initially wondering if giving Lexi's condition a name was in fact pandering to her and making it more of an issue than it was. And I could definitely relate to Freya who was just bewildered by what her 'baby girl' was doing to herself and, though terrified, was sure that she could help her through this difficult time in her life. My heart also went out to older daughter Charlotte, sitting her A-levels, applying for university and feeling she was being neglected by her parents whose focus was understandably on her sister and her problems.

I felt so many emotions when reading this book and felt like I had lived through the fear, worry and dread that it was all a never-ending cycle along with Freya. Amanda Prowse is so skilled at taking a situation and putting her reader right there experiencing everything alongside her characters.

I am thankful that eating disorders are not something which have affected my family but am all too aware how easily it could happen to anyone. This novel, which must have been so carefully researched, was a real insight into what it must be like living with this condition and how it affects all the members of the family, not just the person battling the condition.

I genuinely could not put this book down, reading late into the evening then picking it up again as soon as I awoke the next morning. The situation and characters played on my mind and I found it a totally compelling read. Once again, Amanda Prowse has proved that she can get right to the heart of contemporary issues and make her reader understand more about situations which could affect any one of us.

Another powerful story from the pen of Amanda Prowse. I felt the way it was written gave me an insight into what it's like to live with someone suffering from an eating disorder, the lies, deceit, feelings of helplessness and sometimes anger. You felt the strain of how the family used to live, laugh and love each other, how their lives revolved around food and social activities and how their world shrank into one house and the all consuming battle to get their daughter to eat.

The story is told Another powerful story from the pen of Amanda Prowse. The story is told from the point of view of Freya, the mother, and to be honest I did get a little irritated with her at times but that's all part of the story and who's to say how I would react in the same situation. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity of reading this book. Dec 13, Mairead Hearne swirlandthread. A shockwave that could shatter everything. It is a frightening look at the effects of an eating disorder on the family unit.

See a Problem?

Please read on for my thoughts on this truly wonderful book… The Braithwaite family appear to have it all. A wonderfully happy household where jokes and love are dispensed in equal measures. Freya is a freelance writer of journalistic articles, food related. She has always made sure that her family eat in a very healthy manner. They have two daughters, Charlotte and Lexi, who behave like any siblings do. They annoy each other, they shout at each other but underneath it all they love each other.

Freya and Lockie live life in a very relaxed manner never sure where their next pay-check will come from but yet unencumbered by the fear of the unknown. They live life to the full. A family to envy….. A phone-call from the school one day changes the lives of the family forever. Freya is the expert on food. She feeds her family. Charlotte, the eldest is a cellist and is also sitting her A-levels.

She is struggling to deal with her own issues as a teenager and her disappointment with her parents is palpable off the pages. Lockie is a frustrated father, husband, man. It is fascinating to see how their relationship changes. Their opposing views at times lead to arguments but can their love survive this tragedy in their lives? The Food of Love is a book that will affect you right to your core. The emotions, the tears, the feeling of complete uselessness will take over your world as you turn the pages in the hope that all will work out for Lexi and her family. I have previously read and reviewed Another Love by Amanda Prowse where my emotions were put in a complete spin.

It is the fear of all parents that our children will be affected by the society we live in today and the immediacy of images on Facebook, Snapchat etc The internet is a wide open world to teenagers where all information is at their fingertips and the influence of the celebrity lifestyle can be very dangerous. Our own obsession, as adults, with diets and health, while important to an extent, does affect our children.

If there is any lesson to be learnt from The Food of Love , let it be that of openness in the family dynamic with food. Be very aware of the dangers that society is constantly putting at the feet of our young people. It is a scary world for many and it is our job to help them navigate through it. The Food of Love is a must-read for everyone. It is a novel that will grab your heart.

It is an emotional and poignant read so hankies at the ready folks…. Freya loves her two teenage daughters with all her heart. Charlotte and Lexi are her world. Freya thinks she has it all, two beautiful girls, a husband she's close to and a flexible work schedule. Their life is comfortable and that makes Freya proud. This changes when Freya receives a disturbing phone call. It's the beginning of a discovery that will change her family forever.

more on this story

The Food Of Love is an impressive emotional story about food, family and unconditional love. Freya is a mother who thinks Freya loves her two teenage daughters with all her heart. Freya is a mother who thinks she's doing all the right things. She's in control and that's exactly the way she likes it. When being confronted with a different reality she doesn't know what to do. She wants to be the perfect mother who does everything for her girls and she doesn't want to upset them in any way.

Her husband Lockie is less soft with them, but he's also a concerned and loving father. Lexi is a sweet girl. She's a wonderful girl and it broke my heart to read about her weight issues. It ensures survival of the child who is fully dependent on food provision by others. The quality of these early interactions influences how people respond to situations later in life, and food offering in particular may be closely related to emotion regulation throughout the lifespan.

While research has examined other forms of emotion regulation, and food consumption has been studied from an intra personal perspective, we know little about the inter personal effects of food offering. After reviewing literature from a wide range of disciplines, we propose that one mechanism underlying these effects is empathic emotion regulation EER. Food offering thereby becomes a means to increase positive affect for both recipient and — when the offer has the desired effect — provider.

Love, Food Podcast

We further propose that the sharing of food resources as well as the use of food as a support behavior increases interpersonal closeness. Finally, we frame the process of food offering within a developmental perspective. If the regulatory success of food offering becomes a replacement for other support behaviors, children will learn from an early age to use food as a primary means to soothe self and others, possibly resulting in eating disorders and a restricted range of coping behavior. My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four unless there are three other people.

Food is a fundamental human need that influences both physiological and emotional states.

Site navigation

As such, the search for and consumption of food has shaped human and animal behavior. People feel strongly about their individual food preferences and the food culture they were raised in. Eating behavior goes beyond nutrition and alleviating hunger; family, friends, and cultural heritage shape individual food preferences. Food offering can be used to show affection to loved ones, to show hospitality to strangers, or to adhere to or express religious beliefs. The present article explores the interpersonal properties of food offering, investigating the emotional component involved in the offer and reception of food.

Infants learn from an early age to associate food with soothing and social interaction Smith et al. The physiological properties of food affect mood by way of neurotransmitters Markus et al. Intake of food items has been shown to decrease feelings of helplessness, depression, loss of control, and distress Markus et al.

Above and beyond physiological effects, food has the capacity to enhance positive affect by way of association with situations or contexts Locher et al. Food items do not merely represent a means to satiety, but can also signify comfort or reward. For example, opening a bottle of champagne often signals a celebration of success, and eating lots of ice cream often signifies consolation after a disappointment. To date, using food to regulate emotions has been studied primarily from an intra personal perspective, examining emotional effects within the individual.

Nevertheless, the possibility that people may experience emotional effects due to the inter personal regulatory processes related to food offering certainly merits closer investigation. The food infants and young children gain access to depends mostly, if not solely, on what others offer them. Later in life, people prepare and offer food to friends, acquaintances, romantic partners, children, and sometimes even strangers. The food items offered may vary as a function of the expression of emotion by others and often are a metaphor for comfort, reward, or celebration Locher et al. In this article, we suggest that food offering plays an important role in what we call empathic emotion regulation EER.

We suggest that the offer of food is motivated by — and results in the regulation of — the emotional state of both provider and receiver. We further propose that offering food resources as well as the use of food as a support behavior increases interpersonal closeness. In the sections that follow, we review the literature and introduce a new conceptual model that could guide future research. The motivation to eat is not merely driven by a desire for nutrients and satiety; emotional, and psychological processes play an important role as well.

Emotional states affect when people eat, how much they eat, and which food items they choose to consume. Consuming food, in turn, affects subsequent emotional states Macht, Even in 1-day-old infants sucrose solutions provide a calming effect Smith et al. People change their eating patterns as a response to negative emotions Greeno and Wing, Researchers showed, for instance, that when daily hassles increased, women with high cortisol reactivity increased their food intake Newman et al.

People who are stressed report eating more high-energy, snack-type food Oliver and Wardle, ; Oliver et al. Induction of a depressive mood state increased chocolate craving Willner et al. Research suggests that eating — or choosing certain food items over others — can indeed attenuate negative psychological states. The consumption of fat and insulin, in turn, leads to reduced activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis HPA axis, controls the neuroendocrine response to stress.

Even in the absence of direct stressors, many foods appear to have positive effects on mood. Macht and Dettmer asked participants to record their mood state twice daily for a week after consuming an apple, a bar of chocolate, or no food at all. Although the researchers found equal levels of satiation after consumption of either the apple or chocolate, participants reported more joy and elevated mood after eating chocolate.

You are here

Because sweet food has been shown to reduce stress and sensitivity to pain Smith et al. Consequently, food items become associated with uplifting effects Schellekens et al. Food preferences are not shaped in isolation; eating is an inherently social behavior. A meal shared with others is held in higher esteem and regarded as more of a proper meal than food consumed by oneself Sobal et al. Infants are fully dependent upon caregivers for food provision and become conditioned to associate having their needs met with the presence of others Hofer, Kin selection Hamilton, provides one explanation for why people are willing to forfeit food for the sake of feeding family members.

Nevertheless, food sharing appears to be a highly adaptive trait even among non-family members in that it may facilitate cooperation, allow for relationship maintenance, and create mating opportunities Jaeggi and Van Schaik, Thus, the costs of sharing food resources with others, including strangers, are outweighed by the social benefits that food offering provides.

Just how much the presence of others influences eating behavior is highlighted by a diary study showing that the closer the relationship with someone, the larger the meal people ate in the presence of that person De Castro, People tended to have larger meals when eating with, for example, family members and close friends than when eating with colleagues or classmates.

Meal size decreased as social intimacy decreased, with meals being smallest when consumed alone. In line with these results, Koh and Pliner found that participants in the lab consumed more pasta when eating with a friend than with a stranger. Distraction and increased meal duration cannot entirely account for this social facilitation effect Hetherington et al. Research has shown that social relationships not only influence eating behavior, but that eating behavior can also be a reflection of — or even serve to strengthen — relationships.

For example, when two people offered one another food, observers rated their relationship as closer than when no food was offered. If two people shared food by feeding one another observers rated their relationship as even closer Miller et al. Based on their findings, Miller et al. Alley and Alley et al. Consistent with these findings, Kniffin and Wansink found that people imagining their partner sharing a meal with a potential rival experienced more jealousy than when imagining their partner in a face-to-face interaction with a rival without a meal.

Taken together, these findings underline that people perceive food sharing as an important indicator of — and means to establish and increase — intimacy, friendship and love. Troisi and Gabriel posed that the social aspect of eating is an important reason for the emotion regulatory capacity of food.

Accordingly, children come to associate having their needs met i. Emotions and expectations later in life are linked to these childhood regulatory interactions Hofer, In humans, too, early life regulatory interactions are related to the development of the stress response system e. Moreover, Hofer posed that through conditioning processes and the establishment of mental schemas and representations, the physiological effects of parent—child regulatory interactions become associated with psychological concepts related to close relationships.

In line with the idea that physiological and psychological processes are related, the literature on embodied cognition highlights the interplay between the body, the environment, and the mind. According to Barsalou experiences are fixed within a situation, such that contextual information is coded in association with perception sensory information , action information about spatial properties and movement and introspection mental states, affects, and motivation. Using and combining the information from different modalities can facilitate learning and aid in the representation of abstract concepts Schubert, For instance, children experience physical warmth when someone takes care of them, which over time creates an interrelationship between social proximity and physical warmth Williams and Bargh, ; IJzerman and Semin, The ability to associate the grounded experience of physical warmth with the abstract concept of friendship facilitates knowledge representation.

Accordingly, Zhong and Leonardelli found that when people are subjected to social exclusion and rejection, they feel cold and crave warm food, presumably as a means to compensate for the lack of social proximity Bargh and Shalev, Similarly, the grounded experience of tasting something bitter physical disgust has been shown to elicit feelings of moral disgust Eskine et al. These findings support the idea that physical experiences such as food offering and sharing can activate related higher-order, more abstract concepts associated with close relationships.

Troisi and Gabriel reasoned that the appeal of eating comfort food may arise from its association with social proximity, due to a history of frequently consuming these food items in the presence of close relationship partners. Indeed, the researchers found that relationship-related constructs were activated among participants consuming comfort food chicken soup , but not among participants who did not eat anything. Interestingly, they also found that the effects of a belongingness threat on loneliness was attenuated when participants were instructed to write about the experience of eating a food item that they viewed as comfort food.

However, for participants with an insecure attachment style comfort food did not buffer loneliness, supposedly because caretaker—child interactions did not allow for the formation of positive mental representations of interpersonal closeness through food intake. In fact, food fulfills a comforting role even in highly distressing situations where food ceases to have any nutritional value. In the US, for example, it is customary to allow inmates on death row to order a last meal. An analysis of last meals showed a preference for meals extremely high in fat and carbohydrates calories on average and a propensity to ask for food that was familiar, such as specific brands and foods typical for the Southern regions of the United Sates, such as fried food, coleslaw, and pie.

They asked students to bring their favorite foods to class — food that made them feel good or provided solace. Students were also requested to explain why they had selected these foods. The authors identified four categories of comfort food. Nostalgic food reinforced cultural and familial bonds. Participants noted that especially when separated from friends and family, the consumption of nostalgic food e. Indulgence food consisted of luxury food e.

Convenience food served instant gratification of needs e. Finally, physical comfort foods were described as being comforting in texture or temperature e. Additionally comfort food had specific features. First, it elicited a sense of familiarity. Second, comfort food was often reserved for specific situations e. Third, and most importantly, although comfort food was associated with positive social interactions from the past, students reported consuming it when being alone.

Food that was offered in a positive, interpersonal context likely activates the contextual positive emotions and feelings of belongingness upon consumption later in life. Food appears to be an effective means of intrapersonal emotion regulation due to its physiological and psychological properties. It is surprising however, that although the regulatory effects of food originate from interpersonal interactions, this social component has, to our knowledge, received little scientific attention. We propose that one mechanism responsible for food offering is EER.

EER through food offering can reinforce itself; whenever a food item is successfully used as a regulatory tool, this may increase the association between the food and more positive affect and less negative affect. Therefore, the likelihood that one will use the food to regulate emotions in other social contexts increases.

People are motivated to regulate their own emotions, but empathy — the capacity to understand and react correspondingly to the emotions of others e. The literature suggests that empathy entails both cognitive and affective responses Davis, Perspective taking — trying to understand the emotional state of another person — leads people to sympathize, show concern, and feel compassion for the person in need.

These feelings of empathic concern may, in turn, result in a motivation to show support and helping behavior for other-oriented reasons e. Boosting the immune system with B vitamins and potassium, avocados have long been associated with sexuality. Baked avocados make a wonderful starter.

Thanks to their high vitamin E content, almonds help support female hormones, and have been seen as a fertility symbol for hundreds of years. Their are numerous recipes you can find for gluten-free chocolate tortes made with almond flour. Asparagus is packed full of vitamins and minerals, in particular folic acid, which can help improve libido in both men and women. A super sexy starter is steamed asparagus spears dipped in almond and garlic butter sauce.

Eat with your fingers and maybe even feed your partner. Skip to main content. You are here Home. Honey Sweet and sticky, honey contains the mineral boron, which helps the body utilise estrogen and improves testosterone levels in the blood. Oysters The classic aphrodisiac, oysters - and other shellfish - are packed with zinc, a mineral that increases libido.

Garlic Yes, it may be a bit stinky, but if both you and your partner eat it you won't notice the smell. Figs Figs have long been associated with love and fertility. Chocolate Us girls know all to well the feel-good properties of chocolate, but it also helps release the 'love chemical' that induces feelings of attraction and happiness.

• Wildlife Science: Linking Ecological Theory and Management Applications
• Would I Lie To You?
• En avant, route !: Chemins de Compostelle (Folio) (French Edition)
• Take It Away
• Hungarian Folk Tales (Bluebird Readers Academy Book 1)