Turn on your man with pumpkin pie

Our friend Daniel loves pumpkin. Anything with pumpkin, he'll not only eat it, he'll ingest it with the utmost joy: pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin eggnog, and so on. I imagine he'd eat pumpkin puree straight out of the can if given the opportunity.

Earlier this week, Daniel sent me this story which outlines a study that showed the popular Thanksgiving dessert ingredient to be an aphrodisiac for men. Say what??

According to Dr. Alan Hirsch, the Director of Chicago's Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Center, a study using 40 aromas showed that pumpkin pie topped ladies' fragrances. In fact, the number one aroma that aroused men was a combination of lavender and pumpkin pie. And by itself, pumpkin pie was the single strongest stimulant. In an attempt to explain it scientifically, perhaps the odor of pumpkin pie decreases anxiety, and less anxiety means lower inhibitions. Some alternative medicine experts even recommend pumpkin seeds for erectile dysfunction.

I always knew that vanilla was supposedly a "turn-on" aroma for men. (I read this in a magazine years ago.) But pumpkin? Interesting...You'll have to test this out to see if it's true. I guess it's true what they say: the way to a man's heart is through his stomach (or nose?).