For those looking to cook a special Valentine’s Day meal, the internet is flooded with recipes. You might expect chocolate-dipped strawberries, seafood in creamy sauces, or beef Wellington, the sorts of rich, decadent foods long associated with the sensuous holiday. These days, however, food bloggers often offer low-calorie alternatives—and argue that they’ll produce better romance.
One food site, for example, serves up a “French Kiss” vegan Valentine’s Day menu of vegetable soup with pesto, a vegetarian pâté sandwich, eggplant Florentine, and potatoes with lentils. This is hardly the familiar stuff of romance, yet the post features a photo of a kissing couple standing in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Indeed, the perceived relationship between food and romance has flipped over the last quarter century. Until the sexual revolution of the 1960s, physicians and moralists alike warned against eating flavorful, rich foods that would heighten lustful appetites. But just as social norms shifted in the late 20th century from stigmatizing non-marital sex to valorizing fun in the bedroom, new more restrictive attitudes towards body fat emerged that sapped rich foods of their aphrodisiac reputations—and recast them as harmful to a good sex life. In the 21st century, many wellness influencers argue that low-calorie diets are critical for heightening the lustful appetites, producing everything from a strong sex drive, to a firm erection, to a desirable body.
The belief that flavorful foods drove lust dates back to ancient times. The fourth-century Christian monk Evagrius Ponticus advised that “gluttony is the mother of lust,” and the medieval author Thomas à Kempis warned that “when the belly is full to bursting with food and drink, debauchery knocks at the door.” In 18th-century Britain, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, advised believers to avoid “high-season’d dishes” including anything pickled or smoked to keep their lusts in check.
The…
