Eat Your Way To Better Sex And Better Health!

It's not all in your head, it's not a sign of age, nor is it even a lack of interest: About seventy million American men and women have problems in the bedroom. It's no wonder designer drugs like Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis are in such high demand. But research shows that for many of us, the problem that ends in the bedroom starts in the kitchen, and that great nutrition is the real secret to great sex.

Written by two health psychologists with both clinical and academic experience in nutrition and sexual function, and backed by the latest nutritional and medical research, Great Food, Great Sex is the first food book designed to fire up sexual vitality in both men and women. The simple-to-implement program — including recipes from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health — serves up a dazzling array of sumptuous foods packed with the key nutrients that provide an ample supply of nitric oxide (NO), the proven "miracle molecule" for optimal sexual function.

Robert Fried and Lynn Edlen-Nezin's plan focuses on the three food factors for sexual vitality: nitrogen-rich vegetables and legumes that deliver NO, proteins high in the amino acid L-arginine (another source of NO), and brightly colored super-antioxidants that combat the destructive effects of free radicals. In Great Food, Great Sex you will find straightforward nutritional information that will help you make smart food choices, along with creative ideas for menus and simple recipes for fantastic dishes that really deliver, like

• Broccoli Beef Ginger
• Finger-Licking Curried Chicken
• Spinach Stuffed Sole
• 1-2-3 Peach Cobbler
• Poached Pears with Raspberries
• Luscious Chocolate Strawberries

The only "side effects" you'll experience are a higher energy level, weight loss, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure.

So put the spark back into your sex life, without supplements or dull menus. All you need is an appetite — for great food and great sex. Who knew that getting healthy could be so much fun!

Chapter 1

Pushing Freud Out of Bed

The sexual needs of men and women may differ categorically, but there is considerable overlap, particularly with regard to function. And in terms of our understanding of sexual function, science has come a long way, baby.

Drs. Masters and Johnson were the first to bring sex science into the bedroom more than thirty years ago. They carefully mapped out and described the hydraulics and the mechanics of the "sexual act." Based on their daring and astonishing scientific observations, they showed how men and especially women go through distinct stages of sexual arousal before one can insert "tab A" into "slot A."

It took many years for the mechanics and physiology of sex to seep into psychiatry and sex therapy. Armed with theories about the Oedipus conflict and other assorted obscure neuroses, conventional psychological wisdom fought Masters and Johnson tooth and nail. Men, but more often women, were made to feel that their sexual problems were "all in their head." This bias kept many patients from ever admitting they were suffering from sexual dysfunction.

Even today, many of us have little to no knowledge of the basics of sex and sexuality. Despite the sexual revolution and easy access to information about all aspects of sex, a recent article in Cosmopolitan magazine (October 2003) featured instructions on how to "find your G-spot" (Rush, 2003). It seems that even among the well educated, savvy, and sophisticated, there is a dearth of important knowledge about sexual landmarks.

This is a book about enhancing sexual vitality and performance by extracting the constituents that fuel it from three selected food categories. This is not a book about reproductive biology. However, as experts in the health and behavioral sciences, we are often astonished at how little many people know about their sex organs and how they work, and how often that ignorance impedes their sexual satisfaction as well as their emotional well-being.

This next section is a guide to the most relevant anatomical and physiological details of our sexual equipment. Knowing how our sexual organs work will also help you understand how and why the program offered in Great Food, Great Sex works. Here are the knowledge and the power to make you an expert in keeping the necessary plumbing in tip-top shape.

In the long run, satisfactory sexual performance depends mainly on maintaining proper cardiovascular function so that when you are sexually aroused, blood flow to the sex organs increases as needed to engorge the tissues of those organs. For men, this is experienced as an erection, while for women, it may be perceived as warmth and lubrication of the vaginal tissue. The biochemical sequence that translates amorous arousal into physical arousal creates a cascade that's similar in men and women, but by no means identical.

In addition to visible changes that occur during sex, complicated chemical activities go on in the body. An extremely basic explanation of the key steps in sexual arousal (omitting a number of intermediary enzymes that play a key role in this sequence but add little to our understanding of the sequence) is as follows:

The brain releases acetylcholine (ACh) as a result of sexual arousal. The bloodstream carries it to the blood vessels in the sex organs, where it signals the vessel lining, the endothelium, to release a gas, nitric oxide (NO). NO then causes the endothelium to release a vasodilator substance, cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). cGMP relaxes the blood vessels and causes increased blood flow to the sex organs for erection in men or engorgement in women.

ACh v NO v cGMP = physical arousal

After sex, the enzyme phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) deactivates cGMP:

PDE5 v cGMP + post-arousal

As you will see below, this is the sequence for penile erection in men; a very similar sequence is involved in lubrication and vaginal and clitoral engorgement in women. Engorgement is an obvious prerequisite for men in attaining an erection, but also directly contributes to pleasurable sensations in women.

Copyright © 2006 by Robert Fried. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Tags: Sex and Romance, Diets and Weight Loss

About the Author

ROBERT FRIED, PH.D., is the director of the Stress and Biofeedback Clinic at the Albert Ellis Institute, New York City. He is also a senior professor of biopsychology at Hunter College, CUNY.

About the Author

Lynn Edlen-Nezin, Ph.D., is director of behavioral science and vice president of strategic planning and research for Grey Healthcare Group. She is a graduate of the doctoral program in clinical health psychology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and completed her internship at the Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's — Roosevelt Hospital Center. She is an American College of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer. Dr. Edlen-Nezin has contributed to several books, and her articles have appeared in magazines including Self and Seventeen, as well as in the New York Daily News. She lives in Jackson Heights, Queens.