How to Reduce Cortisol & Belly Fat

How to Reduce Cortisol & Belly Fat

Cortisol is released in larger amounts during times of stress, producing the "fight or flight" response. Since it is a survival hormone, cortisol stimulates glucose production and triggers a hunger response in the brain, while signaling cells to store as much fat as possible. Weight gain due to excessive cortisol levels tends to accumulate in the belly. In order to lose belly fat and reduce cortisol levels, some changes in lifestyle might be required.

Get eight hours of sleep. Lack of sleep is a common stressor that can be easily rectified. Those who get less than eight hours of sleep are far more prone to produce higher levels of cortisol. If you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, natural remedies like chamomile tea , valerian root or melatonin might help.

     Reduce or eliminate stress from your daily life. This might require you to delegate some of your responsibilities to other people or reduce your work load in other ways. If emotional stress is a factor, seek counseling to help resolve or alleviate those issues.

     Eat healthy foods. Reduce or eliminate caffeine, since it stimulates cortisol production. Ensure that you are getting adequate amounts of protein, fiber and greens. This is important since cortisol promotes cravings of fat and sugar, which might limit intake of healthy foods and increase belly fat.

     Avoid a calorie-restrictive diet. Too few calories will stress the body, which will produce more cortisol and trigger a fat-retention effect.

     Exercise. Regular exercise, four to five times a week, can naturally lower cortisol levels and maintain a healthy weight. Excessive exercise, however, can increase cortisol levels. This is often seen in highly trained athletes.

     Supplement with herbs . Herbal therapies such as ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) and magnolia officinalis can help reduce cortisol levels and anxiety. Siberian gensing, an adaptogen, is also valuable for reducing stress and anxiety. The supplements L-theanine and phosphatidylserine are highly beneficial. L-theanine aids in reducing stress and anxiety by increasing alpha waves in the brain. Phosphatidylserine reduces stress and cortisol levels.

     Nourish the adrenal glands with vitamins B and C. Especially important are vitamins B-6 and pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), which are easily depleted when cortisol levels are high. Other vitamins and minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, zinc and potassium, are necessary for proper cortisol regulation.

 

By: Livingstrong.com

Sore, Hungry, and Slow: 3 Signs That Show Your Program Is Working

Sore, Hungry, and Slow: 3 Signs That Show Your Program Is Working

 

Exercise makes us feel great. It makes us less hungry. It helps us perform everyday tasks better. Besides our health and the way we look, feeling great, being less hungry, and performing better are exactly the reasons we put ourselves through exercise. However, en route to ultimate fitness, there are some hurdles we all need to clear. Mainly, they include being faced with the opposite of our intended goals. Enter the trilogy of grumpiness: getting sore, slow, and hungry. We tend to look at these as negatives, but how about a little New Year's spin? You want these feelings because they're clear signs your program is working. Sore, Slow, and Hungry Before we analyze why you need to embrace "going backward," let's answer the obvious question: why would we design this type of program? Certainly, there are exercise programs that don't put you through torture. Could we have chosen such a path with P90X®? The answer is that programs lacking this trilogy don't provide you an incentive to get in top shape. In the early stages of any exercise program, it's possible to structure the schedule and diet around making small improvements. I call this the Curves® template. You push your body above its normal output, though just barely, and you keep it there. If you are greatly deconditioned, it will yield improvements. This approach doesn't hurt, and frankly, it helps people who've never exercised—mainly due to the mental boost they get from feeling they can exercise. It's a nice alternative for some people. But let's be realistic. None of them would sit through a P90X infomercial, much less be inspired by it. The Curves template is what we would call a foundation phase of training for someone who has never exercised. The next step would be one of our programs, like P90X or Slim in 6® (these programs also work on the Curves template because you can choose modified variations). The upside with this method is that each day you leave the gym feeling better than when you walked in. The downside is that you'll never have the body of a fitness model. To achieve a higher level of fitness, you need to periodize your training and eventually stare into your Nietzschean abyss. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger is more than a cliché with P90X—it's your life. Getting Sore Soreness is the easiest symptom to understand. Most of us have been sore at some point. It happens anytime we do something physical that we're unaccustomed to. From yard work to a pickup game with your old team to a marathon shopping spree, when you push your body beyond what you do in your normal day-to-day activity, you get sore. This is true even if you used to do the said activity all the time. In fact, that generally makes it worse, because you still hang on to the muscle memory of how to do the activity, which means you can really put the hurt on if you don't have the requisite fitness base. Most soreness comes from the breakdown of fast twitch muscle fibers. Our bodies have both slow twitch and fast twitch fibers. Slow twitch fibers have a low recruitment factor, which simply means they get fired up at low outputs. Fast twitch fibers have a high recruitment factor, meaning it takes something more intense to get them going. A simple example would be raising your fork to your mouth, which requires slow twitch fibers, compared to raising a heavy barbell over your head, which requires fast twitch fibers. Furthermore, we all have some extra fast twitch fiber for emergencies. When you run from a bear, you're engaging these, which is why you're likely to run faster than you ever have before. Fast twitch fibers are repaired much more slowly than slow twitch fibers. You can pretty much keep shoving food into your mouth and never get tired. When you do get tired, you'll be able to resume the activity quickly. Lifting a barbell over your head will wear you out, and it will take some time before your body is able to do it again. The more weight you add, the quicker you'll get tired and the longer it will take before your body is ready to do it again. And once you've escaped the bear, you'd do well to avoid him for a couple of weeks. Those emergency fibers you've thrashed will take that long to recover. Hypertrophy means muscle growth. Almost all training programs target this, even weight loss programs, because changing a body from rotund to svelte requires you to lose body fat. And the quickest way to lose body fat is to gain more muscle. Muscle requires more work from your body, even at rest, so you're body will take the nutrients from the foods you eat and store them in muscle tissue rather than adipose (or fat) tissue. To create hypertrophy, you need to overload your muscle fibers progressively to keep breaking them down. As you get fitter, you engage higher-threshold muscle cell motor units to keep the overload coming. Breaking down exactly the number of muscle cells your body can replenish right away is nearly impossible. This means that to advance your level of fitness, you are going to break down more muscle fibers than you intended. When this happens, you get sore. Furthermore, the more varied the exercise you do, the more you'll find areas where your body is out of balance. This means some muscles are stronger than others. When you do new exercises, your stronger muscles are forced to do extra work as the weaker ones catch up. This results in both the strong and weak muscles being overworked while they sort out the balance problem. This is the first step of Muscle Confusion™, and as you know, there is no shortage of it in P90X. Getting Hungry "I heard I would get less hungry and all I can think about is eating" is a common sentiment expressed on our Message Boards. The reason is somewhat obvious—our entry-level programs have low-calorie diets, not to mention restricted diets. Most of these people are simply craving the junk foods we've had them cut out. But Xers get hungry too, and they're usually eating enough calories. This is because your body cries out for nutrients when it's in breakdown mode, even when you've eaten all you can. Learning that this craving is normal will greatly help your success curve. When your body is craving nutrients, you want to feed it. However, under the type of duress a hard program creates, you can't possibly give it enough nutrients. Many of us try. We eat and eat. And while eating can help ease the mental anguish your body is going through, you can't put all of these calories to use, and some will get stored in fat tissue. When your body is hungry, supplements are your best friend. Most have very few calories and a lot of nutrients. Some have targeted nutrients, which basically means they're designed for nutrient efficiency. Results and Recovery Formula™ is a prime example. Although its nutrient profile is unsuitable for many situations, during or after exercise, it is the most efficient food for your body. Using Results and Recovery Formula as directed will help you get less sore, and hence less hungry. Shakeology® also shines during an exercise program. While healthy anytime, drinking Shakeology while your body's in flux will enhance your ability to use all of Shakeology's nutrients effectively. But no matter how well we strategize, we're all going to get hungry at some point in our programs. So much so that staying hungry is a metaphor for the bodybuilding lifestyle. In the film Stay Hungry, a bodybuilding champion (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) sums this up with the line, "I don't want to get too comfortable. I'd rather stay hungry." A note from expert Denis Faye: "If you're hungry even though you've eaten all your calories and you're trying to lose weight, your first course of action is to fight it. Hunger doesn't necessarily mean you need food. It just means you're used to food. However, if you're going completely nuts, then you want filling foods with few or no calories. Herbal tea is good, so is broth or veggies, as long as they're fresh and raw. If you must eat something more substantial, I'd opt for a straight protein, like chicken or egg whites. It's not going to impact your blood sugar as hard and it's not all that yummy, so you know you're not just comfort eating." Getting Slow This is the hardest condition to conceptualize but the easiest to explain. During hypertrophy, your muscles are growing. Growing muscles are a bit like a growing person. Just as you learn how to grow into a developing body, you need to learn how to use new muscles. During the hypertrophy stage of your exercise program, your muscles are "big and dumb," like the old-school concept of the "musclehead." Larger muscles have a greater capacity for strength than smaller ones. A large muscle isn't necessarily stronger, but if trained properly, it will become stronger. Muscular efficiency (or absolute strength) is what gets targeted in the latter stages of a training program. Doing low repetitions, along with eccentric and plyometric movements, is all about teaching your muscles efficiency—essentially, the ability to recruit high-threshold muscle cell motor units. We'll talk more about strength training in another article. Today, my point is to explain the rationale behind what I call "getting slow." While your muscles are growing, your ability to move quickly lessens. This is why athletes do all of their body-altering training in the off-season. When you start to feel slow, it's a sign that your program is working. Just remember that you'll want to increase your intensity and whip those big lugs into shape later on. Wanting to experience the trilogy of grumpiness should help you during your next program or training cycle. But remember that these are stages, not chronic conditions. You should only experience them early in a program or new cycle of training. If you aren't experiencing them at all, it means you're ready to ramp your training up to the next level. But if they persist beyond 4 weeks, you're overdoing it and risk overtraining. You may also experience them each time you transition to a new phase. In this case, though, they should be gone before you move into the next phase. www.fitnfreeforlife.com By Steve Edwards

Should I eat after a workout ?

Should I eat after a workout ?




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Why You Should Wear a Heart Rate Monitor

Why You Should Wear a Heart Rate Monitor

By Steve Edwards

Your heart is the most important muscle in your body. It delivers oxygenated blood from your lungs to the rest of your body and, as you're aware, oxygen is the primary ingredient keeping us alive. Like any muscle, the heart needs to be exercised, and monitoring your heart rate is an easy way to keep yourself working in the right "zone," reducing your chance of injury and overtraining, and increasing the odds that you'll get the results you want.



Heart rate monitors measure your cardiovascular and physiological stress during training sessions. They provide you with an accurate gauge of how intensely you're exercising, which is reflected in your heart rate. The harder you exercise, the higher the heart rate goes. When your heart rate changes, it's a sign that something is happening. By monitoring your heart rate, you will learn to tell when your workouts are effective, when you are over or undertraining, and even when you may be getting sick and need to back off

How Do I Understand My Heart Rate Monitor?

These days, heart rate monitors come in many shapes and sizes. Some simply show your heart rate, time of day, and offer a stopwatch function. Others measure the wattage you're pushing on your bike, count every step you take, and map and measure every place you go. Provided you learn to use these features, they all have potential to help you get fitter. Today we'll stick to the heart rate portion, which simply counts the number of times your heart beats.

Heart rates are measured in beats per minute (bpm). Your resting heart rate indicates your basic fitness level and is defined by the number of times your heart beats per minute while your body is at rest. In general, the fitter you are the less effort, and fewer beats per minute, it takes your heart to pump blood to your body at rest. I say in general because part of this is genetic. We're born with varying genetic capacities for this process, so you should measure your heart rate versus your own and not someone else's because you could be fitter than someone who has a naturally lower heart rate.

To gauge this, measure your resting heart rate immediately after waking up and before you get out of bed (so, yes, wear your monitor to bed until you understand the process—you can also count your pulse but it's less accurate). Take these measurements for five consecutive days and find the average. This average is your actual resting heart rate. Resting heart rate is dependent upon your living habits and a number of factors such as your quality of sleep, stress level, and eating habits.

Your average heart rate is the number of times your heart beats within a certain period of time, like over the course of a workout.

Your maximum heart rate (max HR) is the maximum number of times your heart can contract in one minute. An accurate max HR should be tested in a lab setting. In lieu of lab testing, we use this formula:
Women: 226 – your age = your age-adjusted max HR
Men: 220 – your age = your age-adjusted max HR

For example: If you are a 30-year-old woman, your age-adjusted maximum heart rate is 226 – 30 years = 196 bpm.

These formulas apply only to adults and have an error margin of +/–10 to 15 beats per minute, due to different inherited characteristics and exercise training. If you want to exercise/train at your most effective levels, your max HR should be measured. However, most of us are fine using the above estimates. When you need your training to be more specific, you'll almost certainly know it because you'll be obsessing over a race or event as opposed to simply trying to be healthy.

Your anaerobic threshold (AT) is the physiological point during exercise at which your muscles start using up more oxygen than the body can transport (the point where lactic acid accumulates and you get "pumped"), which forces you to stop. This point becomes obvious without any monitoring. It's why you can't do push-ups forever and why people drop to the floor during sets in INSANITY®. While you can't control it, you can train it if you know where it is, which you can figure out using your HR monitor.

Note: Like your max HR, your anaerobic threshold doesn't necessarily correspond to others. Some people have naturally higher maximum heart rates than others.

What's a Heart Rate Zone? And What Zone Should I Be in?

These "zones" correlate to different levels in intensity, which (as you'll see below) increases as you get closer to your max HR. In any hard workout you will experience all of them. Easier workouts will skip the higher zones.

Heart Rate Zone	Percentage of Max HR	Perceived Exertion Difficulty
Z1 Healthy Heart Zone	50%–60%	2–5 (perceived exertion)
Z2 Temperate Zone	60%–70%	4–5 (perceived exertion)
Z3 Aerobic Zone	70%–80%	5–7 (perceived exertion)
Z4 Threshold Zone	80%–90%	7–9 (perceived exertion)
Z5 Redline Zone	90%–100%	9–10 (perceived exertion)

In the lower zones—sometimes called "cruise zones"—you can train for longer periods of time. As you move up to higher-intensity zones, you need to decrease the amount of time that you spend in these, particularly in the top two (the Threshold and Redline Zones) where your body, as noted above, will make you stop.

Your five heart rate zones are specific to your maximum heart rate, not anybody else's. For example, if there two runners are each maintaining a heart rate of 160 bpm, one runner might be in their Z4

Threshold Zone while the other might be in their Z2 Temperate Zone.
Each heart rate zone burns a different number of calories per minute. How many calories you burn within the range for each zone depends on how fit you are:

Zone 1 = 3–7 calories per minute
Zone 2 = 7–12 calories per minute
Zone 3 = 12–17 calories per minute
Zone 4 = 17–20 calories per minute
Zone 5 = 20+ calories per minute

Looking at this, you all probably want to be in zone 5 as much as possible. Unfortunately, the time we can spend here is limited. For efficiency, Beachbody® workouts try and maximize the time spent in the higher zones, which we'll get to in a moment. Training in the lower zones is also important.

What About the "Fat-Burning Zone"?

The Fat-Burning Zone. You'll notice the lack of something called the fat-burning zone in the table below. The reason for this is that it's misleading because people feel the need to stay in this low heart rate zone in order to burn fat. In reality, the opposite is true.

In Z1 and Z2, you're using stored fat for fuel. It's cool-sounding, yes, but your body is doing this because it's trying to conserve its limited stores of something called glycogen, its primary fuel for hard exertions. It's important to train in Z1 and Z2, but most of us train in it plenty during our warm-ups, cooldowns, recovery periods between hard sets of exercise, and the daily activities in our life. Endurance athletes, however, do need to spend extra time training these zones because their sport requires it. In theory, you'll never get tired because your heart can continue to pump oxygenated blood to your muscles indefinitely. In reality, we still break down and wear out—like the way you feel after a long day at the mall—so those who compete for many hours need to spend more time training "long."

Z3 is called aerobic because it's the hardest zone you can train in without going anaerobic (the point where the pump starts settling in). This is what we're targeting in steady state "cardio" workouts. It's actually quite hard to stay in this zone because we're always creeping into zone 4, so the most effective way to train it is using an over/under strategy, which is done by training in intervals between the higher and lower zones. Again, endurance athletes often try and target this zone more specifically because their sport requires that they maintain as fast a pace as possible without getting pumped.

Z4 and Z5 are your anaerobic zones. You can't stay in these very long because your heart can't pump oxygen to your body fast enough. Your body is using glycogen (via blood sugar) as fuel and it runs out rapidly—part of why Results and Recovery Formula® works so well after hard workouts where you've spent a lot of time in these zones. Trying in these zones forces your body to break down muscle tissue and fire "emergency" hormones to repair this tissue, which is all vital for getting fitter (and looking "ripped"). All athletes, even endurance athletes, spend most of their training focused in this area.

What Zone Should I Be in During My Workout?

As you can probably guess, you want to do each Beachbody workout to the maximum of your ability. This means that you don't back off so that your heart rate falls into a lower zone on purpose, as you might if you were training for a triathlon.

The only exception is if you're following a "doubles" routine, where one of your two workouts is supposed to be at "low to moderate intensity," meaning that you don't want to exceed Z2. But our programs are based on efficiency, and in most cases, intensity = efficiency.

To get a sense of how intense you're working out, your heart rate monitor is a great tool to help you monitor and track your progress, and make sure you are working hard enough to get the cardiovascular and fat-burning results you want.

In general, you should see a pattern throughout the course of any Beachbody program. "Cardio" days will burn more calories than resistance days at first because you're moving more and your average heart rate is higher. Over time, however, you should get stronger and, thus, lift more weight for more repetitions in resistance days, greatly increasing the caloric burn for those days. This is why so many of our programs use weight and, even in INSANITY (which uses gravity in place of weight), we add weight to the later workouts of ASYLUM. If this is not happening, it means you need to add weight and/or repetitions to your resistance workouts! Besides what you see in the mirror, this is best way to see if you're making improvements in your health and fitness.

You will also learn that by tracking your progress, you'll be more in tune with external factors that are upsetting you. You will be able to tell when you are getting sick or overtraining. When that's happening, you won't be able to get your heart rate to maximums that you've seen prior, or your heart rate at rest will be too high. This is an indicator that something isn't quite right.

The best way to stay ahead of the game is by getting into the habit of checking your resting heart rate each morning before you get out of bed. As you get into shape, it should continually drop. If it reverses this pattern for more than a couple of days in a row, it's telling you that your body is stressed, which could be due to overtraining, the onset of an illness, or some other negative environmental impact. In any case, that means it's time to back off until your resting heart rate goes back down. If wearing your monitor to bed is too much trouble, just use your fingers and count beats of your pulse at your neck or wrist for a minute. It's less accurate, but you don't need to be perfect. A racing pulse means something is amiss (though your pulse will be fast for the first couple of weeks as you adjust to any new program).

Once you learn your body's patterns, you'll be able to anticipate your body's needs rather than just reacting to them, and this alone justifies learning your way around a heart rate monitor at least once in your life.

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10 Health Benefits of Having Sex

10 Health Benefits of Having Sex

 

By Jocelyn Voo

 

Let's state the obvious: Having sex is fun. But what might be less obvious is that it's also good for you -- mentally and physically. While it's something of a chicken or egg situation to determine the direction of causality -- "Do healthier people tend to have more sex or people who have more sex tend to be healthier?" There are some studies that link better loving with better living. 

 

It's Time to Start Sexercising

While sex will never equal a kickboxing class or a session of strength training, the fact that you're getting some sort of a muscular workout is undeniable. The human body has over 600 muscles and during sex, "we're releasing and contracting all the muscles within the body," says Patti Britton, PhD, author of The Art of Sex Coaching and past president of the American Association for Sexuality Educators. Arms, butt, legs, core muscles -- they're all getting used. And while some positions have better toning payoffs than others, as long as you're putting some effort into it you'll be burning calories from start to (ahem) finish.

A Happier Mood

Having sex is definitely pleasurable on a physical level, but chemically it has been suggested to elevate mood and reduce depression.
The surmised reason, believe it or not: Exposure to semen. A study done by the State University of New York controlled the length of a relationship, amount of sex, time elapsed since last sexual encounter, and use of oral contraceptives to show that women who never used condoms reported better moods and fewer depressive symptoms or suicidal thoughts than those who used condoms. Why? One theory is that vaginal tissue is very absorptive, and semen contains a host of mood-elevating chemicals, like endorphins, oxytocin, serotonin, and prolactin. For women, sex is literally a jolt to your system, and if you're getting it on regularly you might be on cloud nine for quite a while.

A Stronger Immune System

Orange juice? Check. Flu shot? Check. Sexytime? Check!
A study from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania indicated that people having sex one to two times a week had three times as much Immunoglobulin A (a major antibody) in their systems as those having no sex, infrequent sex (less than once a week), or -- a note to your nosy neighbors -- very frequent sex (3 times or more a week).

Glowing Skin

Forget your morning swipe of blush and overly expensive face serums. With increased blood circulation and oxygenation of the blood, a post-coital glow means a temporary brighter complexion. But there are longer-lasting beauty benefits of sex, too. An orgasm triggers a rush of endorphins and growth hormones, like DHEA, that help heal damage caused by the sun, smoking, and cortisol buildup, which is associated with the thinning of the skin. In fact, a Scottish study showed that people who have sex every other day look dramatically younger (up to seven to 12 years!) than their compatriots. If your crow's feet are a growing concern, make sure to get some alone time in with your guy -- your face will thank you.

Stress Relief

In 2010, Brazil's health minister recommended sex (along with other traditional forms of exercise) as a fix for the nation's high blood pressure problems, and he wasn't completely off the mark. Researchers from Scotland have found that people who were sexually active had lower blood pressure when engaged in stress-inducing tasks, such as public speaking, with those only having sex in the last two weeks charting the lowest number.
"In part, it's the oxygenation of blood and the focusing of the mind away from negative stressors," explains Britton. "Sex has that magical quality of bringing you into the moment, especially at orgasm, which is a period of time that feels like animated suspension, where your mind and body both go off-grid."

More Zzz's

Don't take it personal if your guy starts snoring shortly after some quality time between the sheets. That intense relaxation you feel right after climax due to an oxytocin rush can actually make you doze off faster. Big meeting tomorrow? Include an evening romp on your list of prep work for the night before.

A Self-Esteem Boost

Those after-sex smiles on both your faces are signs of a fun night and also a job well done. "I think when people raise the potential of sexual expression, it boosts their self-esteem and gives them a sense of being attractive, desirable, proficient, and confident," says Britton. "And that carries over into all areas of life."

A Stronger Relationship

Here's a perk you'll both enjoy: increased intimacy. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of North Carolina found that among 59 couples, those with more loving physical contact showed the highest amounts of oxytocin. Released both during sex and even while kissing, "oxytocin is the hormone that creates the urge to merge and bond," explains Britton. "There's a surge of it after sex and that's where the desire to cuddle and hold each other comes from."

 

"Solo sex, or sex with someone who you're not in love with can still be pleasurable, but neither fulfills the emotional needs to the extent that sex with someone you care about can," says Marta Meana, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and president of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research. So while you're still getting the release of oxytocin during masturbation, the pair-bonding aspect may manifest itself more in feelings of generosity toward others (e.g., baking your girlfriends cookies), rather than impulses to settle down and start knitting baby booties.

Fast Relief from Aches and Pains

That runner's high you get after finishing your morning loop? Thank for endorphins for that. That breathless, heady haze after some midnight nooky? Thank endorphins for that, too. Right before climax, a wave of oxytocin rushes through your body that in turn releases endorphins, which are similar in structure to opiates and have the same feel-good affect by occupying morphine receptors in the brain. "It's pain relief and pain killing effect," says Britton. Have a headache? Ditch the nap and squeeze in a quickie instead.

Staying Mentally Sharp

In addition to providing enhanced blood flow to the body, sex also increases blood flow to the brain, delivering an extra boost of glucose that it uses as energy. So, if you've got a buildup of e-mails to read or really want to finish your crossword puzzle, sex might just be the jump-start you need. Afternoon delight, anyone?

Article Provided By: fitnessmagazine.com

 

9 Aphrodisiacs to Heat Up Your Love Life

9 Aphrodisiacs to Heat Up Your Love Life

By Joe Wilkes

Named for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, aphrodisiacs have been the stuff of legend and song throughout history. Lovers looking for a leg up in the libido department have gone to their shamans, medicine men, and herbalists for centuries, searching for the magic ingredient that will kick their mojo into high gear. And today the search has gone to the Internet. Anyone with a lackluster spam filter has probably scanned the hundreds of emails that arrive every day, advertising powdered rhinoceros horn or some unpronounceable chemical that promises to goose your or your partner's desires. The efficacy of these miracle products is extremely dubious (and, in the case of the exotic animal parts, illegal), but there are plenty of products that you can find right in your grocery store or farmers' market that can potentially increase the heat between the sheets. Here are some common foods and why they might be able to put a little extra oomph into that special evening. And over half of them are in the top two tiers of Michi's Ladder, so you can have your cake and eat it, too! (Well, not cake, but asparagus and bananas!)

Oysters. These are perhaps the classic aphrodisiacs of all time. The legendary lover Casanova reportedly consumed 50 oysters every day to keep his . . . um . . . stamina up. But until recently the powers of these bivalves were only backed up by anecdotal evidence and the testimonials of mollusk-loving Lotharios. Recently though, studies have shown that oysters and their shellfish brethren, including clams, scallops, and mussels, all contain chemical compounds that may aid the release of testosterone, estrogen, and other sex hormones in both men and women. Oysters are also full of zinc, a deficiency of which can cause impotence in men, another reason they can be man's best friend in the bedroom. And then of course there's the conventional wisdom that if you'll eat an oyster, you'll eat anything.

 

Chocolate. What's more associated with Valentine's Day than chocolate? The ancient Aztecs considered chocolate to be an aphrodisiac for both men and women, and when the Europeans got wind of its inhibition-lowering properties, it wasn't long before the candy treat became a must-have when pitching woo. Casanova and famed Louis XV courtesan Madame du Barry were reported to be great believers in the powers of chocolate, and there may have been something to it. Chocolate contains the chemicals phenylethylamine and serotonin, which are also naturally occurring chemicals in the brain, usually released when we are happy or in love. Its chemicals can literally cause your heart to beat a little faster. Add to that a boost of caffeine and sugar, and it can be a pretty good pick-me-up with a small side of euphoria.

 

Figs. Maybe it wasn't just the apple in the Garden of Eden that got things going. Remember, Adam and Eve ended up covering themselves in fig leaves. And it was also the favorite fruit of Cleopatra, who was certainly no slouch in the ways of love. In ancient Greece, fertility rituals would often follow the first fig harvest, and Greek portrayals of bacchanalia usually also included some fig action. In some European countries, figs are thrown instead of rice at newly married couples (ouch!) as symbols of fertility.

 

Bananas. In the Islamic version of the tale, Adam and Eve covered themselves with banana leaves rather than fig leaves. Bananas are also considered a fertility symbol by the Hindus. Bananas can really get you going with their high levels of potassium and B vitamins, which aid the production of hormones. Bananas also contain the protease bromelain, which is believed to help circulation

.

Asparagus. It is rich in vitamin E, which is critical to the production of hormones. It also contains a lot of folic acid, which the body needs to produce histamines. And histamines are the chemical compounds that cause muscle contractions. A word of caution though—too much asparagus can cause flatulence, which might make the whole romantic plan backfire (no pun intended).

 

Avocados. The Aztecs referred to the avocado tree as Ahuacuatl or "testicle tree." Apparently, the fruit usually hangs in pairs. There appears to be little besides anecdotal evidence to support its claim as an aphrodisiac, though it is rich in many nutrients, including vitamins B6, C, and E. The California Avocado Commission conducted a Valentine's Day survey in 2000 of experts, 63 percent of whom concluded that the avocado does have some aphrodisiac qualities, some of which could be attributed to recently discovered phytochemicals.

 

Caviar. This fish-egg delicacy has been enjoyed by lovers for centuries, including, of course, Casanova (which increasingly leads me to believe a lot of women were just sleeping with him to get to the buffet). Caviar is known for its silky texture. Naturally, eggs are common fertility symbols, but there may also be some chemical reasons for which they are rated so highly on the love-maker's diet. Like oysters, they are high in zinc and rich in vitamins A and D and omega-3 fatty acids. They also are high in arginine, an amino acid which acts as a vasodilator, widening blood vessels and increasing blood flow.

 

Truffles. Not the chocolate kind (although those count under the "chocolate" category) but the expensive underground mushroom kind that pigs and dogs root out of the ground. Unlike other foods, it is the musky scent of the truffle that is believed to be what gets us going. Scientists have recently discovered that black truffles contain the pheromone androstenol. There is some debate over how much human beings are affected by pheromones, but truffles have been considered to be aphrodisiacs for centuries, and this recent discovery could be one explanation.

 

Champagne. When we think of romantic beverages, the list pretty much begins and ends with champagne. Most of the effects of champagne seem to be largely psychological, though. The purchase of an expensive beverage may set the mood for a special evening, and a mystique has been built in the media about the drink and its drinkers, from Marie Antoinette to Marilyn Monroe. But scientifically speaking, its amorous effects seem to come from the same place as most alcoholic beverages. Alcohol appears to have no positive effect on sexual function and, when overindulging, will usually move you in the other direction. It does, however, lead to a loss of inhibition and a decrease in judgment—in other words, a prelude to a kiss.