Valentine’s Day: 10 natural love potions you should know

With the season of love, thousands of us will tap into heightened desires, expectations and abandoning all semblance of common sense, we will seek out pleasure. Real or imagined.

We sought out to seek foods, not pills, that people turned to for a burst of passion, long before Viagra.

 In a 2007 study, 47 per cent of subjects reported improved erections after eating pomegranate fruit over a period of four weeks.

How would I even go about assessing information like that? Using the International Index of Erectile Function. Thanks to this study, pomegranate fruit is occasionally called the “red Viagra.”

 Red wine is infused with the antioxidants quercetin and resveratrol, really helps get the blood pumping. That’s why it is “the other red Viagra”.

 To bore you with facts, scientists ascribed the aphrodisiac qualities of chocolate to two chemicals it contains.

Tryptophan, a building block of serotonin, a neurochemical involved in sexual arousal. And phenylethylamine which belongs in the amphetamine family of hormones, all stimulants released in the brain when people fall in love.

A potent vegetable boasting of high potassium levels, increases your libido. It's also rich in folates and B vitamins, elements which studies show improve sperm DNA. So, don't forget to befriend a local asparagus farmer if you’re looking to make a baby.

I mean, isn’t it obvious? If not, cucumbers are loaded with vitamin C and manganese, which play a role in supporting sexual welfare and boosting energy and sexual drive. Vitamin C helps blood flow, sorting erectile function. Also, it has a phallic shape, as a reminder.

Avocados are partially in season and they come with lots of vitamin B6, which promotes testosterone production.

Here’s a riddle, what grows in pairs, has rough skin and is pear shaped? Avocados! The fruit got its name from the Aztecs when they discovered them in 500 BC, and it essentially means “testicles”.

The sensation of hot chilli on the tongue triggers the release of endorphins, meaning you’re already halfway on the horny journey.

Each variety of nut has its own unique folkloric tale as an aphrodisiac. Nuts contain energising zinc and stimulate better blood flow to all the right places.

As if the bright pink sensual shape doesn’t make cherries and strawberries look like feel-good foods already, the fruits are packed with flavonoids and vitamins which maintain the blood’s vitality and keep it pumping.

Celery’s scent has been proven to induce emotion that then triggers neurochemical changes in the brain, intensifying emotion, and sexual attraction.

When it comes to the game of love, this thin stalked vegetable carries its notorious potential as far back as the Middle Ages.

Grimod de la Reyniere, an eighteenth-century historian, unearthed a quote saying, “It is enough to stress that [celery] is not in any way a salad for bachelors.”