People often say that dogs are man’s best friend, and diamonds are woman’s. While the latter one is probably true, we’re here to debunk the former. Sure, dogs are amazing — nobody denies that. They can cheer you up, they can fetch a beer can, and they always match your mood. Go dogs!
However, your best friend? No! A man’s best friend is actually something both men and women eat, and that’s chocolate. There’s a study that shows how eating chocolate affects us exactly and why it’s great for our sex game. Let’s take a peek.
Chocolate as Aphrodisiac
Chocolate has been considered an aphrodisiac since before Europeans arrived in the Americas. The Aztec emperor Montezuma used to consume cacao beans before any sexual encounter so that he could fulfill his imperial expectations. Is this just a myth, or does chocolate really affect one’s libido?
The truth is — it is actually an aphrodisiac. The reason for this lies in two chemicals that are inside chocolate. Those are tryptophan and phenylethylamine (PEA). The latter is basically a stimulant related to amphetamines. Your brain releases PEA when you start falling in love, so basically it’s a love chemical. Tryptophan, on the other hand, is part of serotonin, which is a hormone that regulates our happiness and arousal. Combine these two together, and you’ve got yourself a sex drive.
These two elements, however, are not that plentiful inside a chocolate bar. While they do have some effect on you, they can’t stimulate the brain that much. However, they’re not the only trick chocolate has. There’s also something else we call kisspeptin.
Man’s Best Friend
Kisspeptin is a hormone that is inside chocolate. Another name for this hormone is “the viagra of the mind.” Interested yet? It’s been scientifically proven that kisspeptin can help men with low sex drives get going. Previously, we knew that kisspeptin (partly named after the famous Hershey’s kisses) affects men’s arousal. How? Well, it enhances the way our body and mind process arousal, making us more aware and more responsive to the stimulus. However, thanks to a recent study, we now know that kisspeptin has an even bigger impact.
Scientists from Imperial College London used 33 heterosexual men for the study. They would inject them with either kisspeptin or a placebo. Then, they would go inside an MRI scanner. At that point, scientists would either show them some provocative photos of women, or they would let them sniff a female perfume. The perfume in question was Chanel No. 5.
The results showed that men injected with kisspeptin showed a significantly higher level of arousal than those injected with a placebo. Furthermore, not only were they more aroused, but kisspeptin also greatly impacted their attraction pathways. Our attraction pathways usually suffer when we have a lower quality of sexual life, making our sex drives low.
What’s Next
How does this help us? Well, the study shows that, with kisspeptin, we can medically work on helping people with low sexual desires. We classify low desire for sex as a psychosexual disorder, and it affects approximately one in three people around the globe. Lowered (or waning) libido can also be a result of a medical issue. For instance, it can happen if your hormone levels are reduced.
As you can see, over 30% of men suffer from this disorder. However, despite the frequency, we simply didn’t have the means to treat low sex drives. There are a handful of treatments out there, and we still don’t fully know what makes our brain have a low libido.
That’s why this study about kisspeptin is so crucial. In the future, we will have the option to treat ourselves with this hormone and increase our sex drive (and treat mood disorders) with ease. However, kisspeptin is still not available for mass consumption. What should we do until then? Well…
Until Then, Eat More Chocolate
Instead of giving up sex for chocolates, use chocolates to have sex! Until we get some significant updates on the study, we won’t be able to satisfy our kisspeptin needs elsewhere. Eating chocolate increases our kisspeptin levels, making us hungrier for getting some action. Aside from kisspeptin, chocolate also comes with well-known health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure and reducing heart disease risks. Sure, if you eat too much, you will get chubby, but that will just make you cozier.
Chocolate During Sex
That’s not all, folks! Remember, we did say chocolate is man’s best friend; we didn’t use that expression lightly. Not only does it increase your libido, but it can also aid you in your foreplay routine. If you want to spice things up, you can introduce chocolate in sex as a means to get everyone in the mood.
For instance, you can put chocolate cream around their erogenous zones and lick it up. Alternatively, you can blindfold your partner and make them lick you all around until they find the spot where you put chocolate. You’ll get aroused by these mini-games, and chocolate will be there to make sure everything is smooth sailing.