If oxytocin be the food of love, play on…

“Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate.”

– Alan D. Wolfelt

Food has always gone ‘hand in hand’ with love…or perhaps ‘mouth to mouth’ would be a more appropriate description? So, it’s no surprise that throughout the ages, writing about love has inspired good food, and  writing about good food has inspired great love.

However, delve a little deeper, and there’s actually some scientific fact behind the literary fluff….

Oxycitin – the hormone of love

Food and love are inexorably linked, thanks to a complex hormonal reaction that affects our emotional attachments to loved ones — and our need for food.

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”

-Harriet van Horne

A hormone called oxytocin is the hormone which is released during sex, childbirth and breastfeeding – it’s been variously described as the ‘hormone of love’, the ‘bonding hormone’ or the ‘cuddle hormone’, and is designed to bring us closer together as humans.

Oxytocin can be released by stimulation of the other senses – smells, sight, touch and warmth – so it’s no surprise that food is a great stimulator, as it combines all of the above senses.

Men are just dopes…

It probably shouldn’t come as much of a shock either, that women produce more oxycitin than men; their pleasure receptors are more geared towards love and bonding, whilst men are more attracted by short-term pleasure which is driven by the hormone dopamine.

The problem for women is that their bodies can’t distinguish whether the person they’re with is a casual fling or marriage material — oxytocin is released either way. So while food might help you bond with the love of your life, it’s also the reason you may feel so miserable when a short-term relationship ends, hence the need for comfort eating!

“I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love, and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them.”

-Nora Ephron

Eating disorders

Ironically, patients with eating disorders (such as anorexia nervosa) were found to be less fixated on food and body image after being given a dose of the hormone oxycitin (the very same ‘feel good’ hormone we discussed at the start of this article).

So, what can become a vicious spiral (not eating = lack of oxycitin = deteriorating self-worth) can be turned on its head into a virtuous circle through the application of the missing hormone.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

– Virginia Woolf

Conclusion

“If music be the food of love, play on.
Give me excess of it that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.”

– Orsino, Twelfth Night

It appears that Shakespeare was way ahead of his time yet again. Granted, this quote works much better this way rather than “If oxycitin be the food of love…”, but the sentiment is there for all to see.

So, for women in love, food represents is an intense bonding experience, the foreplay to the main event. Men – just consider that fact next time you’re debating about whether to shell out £40 for a 3-course Valentine’s Day meal!

“People who love to eat are always the best people.”

– Julia Child