Celery: the new Viagra?

Eating a stick of celery can have the same affect on your love-life as taking Viagra, two authors claim.

The stalk of the crunchy green vegetable contains a steroid called androstenone, which gives off a ‘sex scent’ that makes men seem more attractive.

By eating it, the writers (Mark Anderson and Walter Gaman) claim, you increase your levels of androstenone. In doing so you could, theoretically, boost your sex life, just as you do when you take Viagra.

The author’s assertion should not be taken too literally. Eating multiple sticks of celery before a date is unlikely to change your partner’s libido in a massive way. Nonetheless, eating it regularly as part of your diet could have some kind of impact. The authors (who wrote the book Stay Young: Ten Proven Steps To Ultimate Health) say that a man should: “work out, have a nice warm shower, chomp on a few sticks of celery, brush his teeth and then head out the door smelling good.”

Earlier this year, the Argentinean president Christina Fernandez, sensationally claimed that another foodstuff could improve your sex life – pork. Giving a speech at an event to celebrate the country's pig farming industry, she said: "eating pork improves your sex life. I'd say it's a lot nicer to eat a bit of grilled pork than take Viagra."

There are plenty of natural aphrodisiacs out there; take Rhodiola, a plant found in Russia, or the Chinese herb called Horny Goat Weed. So far no one has yet proven that pork can be counted among these.