may shrug off cocoa, a favorite of Aztec lovers. If there is either too much expansive force or too much contractive, sexual energy and performance are thwarted. For example: Alcohol or“ mind-expanding” drugs could, in small and precise measure, help expand and loosen someone who is too tight. In large doses, or if there’ s not enough contraction or tension to begin with, they’ ll create so much expansion that the power of contraction is lost, and with it the tension necessary to achieve orgasm. Another example of excessive expansiveness would be a vegetarian dinner of curries, yogurt, ice cream, plus three beers and two glasses of wine— hardly conducive to an amorous night. Circe’ s meal of cheese and barley, honey and wine, quickly put Odysseus to sleep. Conversely, meat and eggs, in discreet amounts, may pull together someone whose energy is scattered and unfocused. But as major and steady components of the diet, they can lead to tightness, tension, an inability to relax.( Then a drink or two are needed, and we go around again.) In short, though foods and drinks of extreme expansiveness or contractiveness may, in small amounts, enhance sexual satisfaction, in larger amounts they will reduce it. 8 According to a friend of mine who has had much experience, hamburgers and whisky make for dull sex; she found that the most satisfying encounters come after a few days’ fast in the heat of summer, after a meal of fresh fish, fruit, and wine. Food can work both ways, and at times it may be desirable to cool an overardent lover, or an oversexed teenager. Then such foods as citrus, cucumbers, tofu, raw salads, and cold cooked fruit desserts— baked apples, poached pears— would be the best choice. Now that we’ ve looked at the various levels on which food and sex relate, let’ s look at specific foods and diets and their effect on both sexuality and reproductive health. THE EFFECTS OF VEGETARIANISM Men’ s interest in sex, and to a lesser degree that of women, may be reduced or in some cases eliminated by a totally vegetarian diet, a fact quite useful to celibate spiritual groups. This occurs most frequently with vegetarian diets that emphasize expansive foods, such as raw fruits, salads, sweets and baked goods, and perhaps yogurt and cheeses. One medical observer even maintains that vegetarians as a group have a high rate of impotence and problems with libido. 9 A macrobiotic vegetarian diet, on the other hand, which includes enough contractive foods, such as whole grains, beans, and fermented soy products, may prolong endurance and increase sensitivity. Because animal protein promotes a higher production of sexual secretions, * large amounts of meat daily could lead to a need for more frequent orgasmic release. A vegetarian or semivegetarian regime would therefore prolong endurance, because there would be less stimulus for frequent discharge. We thus have the possibility of choosing the quality of our sexual exchanges: short and frequent, or long and intense, depending on whether we choose to be meat eaters or vegetarians. THE EFFECTS OF SUGAR AND DAIRY Of all the foods that may create problems in either sexual performance or the health of the reproductive organs, the two greatest offenders are refined sugar and processed milk products. There is some evidence that a high consumption of sugar-sweetened foods may lead not only to impotence and premature ejaculation, but to unrealistic sexual attitudes and expectations, strong urges, strange fantasies, and even crimes of sexual violence. 10
This is not as farfetched an idea as at first glance it may appear: Sugar consumption and criminal behavior have been linked by a growing number of researchers. 11
Sugar, especially in men, will also lower the sex drive if it is part of a low-protein diet, and play havoc with performance indirectly by causing diabetes. The experiences reported by many of my students have convinced me that one of the major dietary factors in female reproductive problems is dairy food. By dairy I mean pasteurized, homogenized, vitamin D— fortified milk, cheeses, ice cream, and even yogurt. At least one gynecologist has found that the patients with the most severe problems— cysts, tumors, discharges, infections— invariably eat large amounts of milk products. 12
Any problems of accumulation or malfunction of the reproductive organs, in both male and female, would automatically interfere with our vitality and our overall enjoyment of sex. Yogurt, because of its antibiotic properties, is supposed to help in cases of vaginal infection. Yet I know scores of cases in which vaginal infections disappeared after the elimination of both yogurt and other milk products. One woman who had a large uterine tumor called me, elated, three months after she had eliminated dairy products from her diet, to tell me that she had discharged the tumor with her menses.