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November 20, 2004
WOMEN have compared chocolate to
WOMEN have compared chocolate to sex for decades. Now doctors have discovered a scientific link between the two.
According to Italian researchers, women who eat chocolate regularly had the highest levels of desire, arousal and satisfaction from sex. But for men, the findings of a British study were not so good....
...In the chocolate/sex study, urologists from Milan's San Raffaele hospital questioned 163 women about their consumption of chocolate and their sexual fulfilment.
"Women who have a daily intake of chocolate showed higher levels of desire than women who did not have this habit," the study found. "Chocolate can have a positive physiological impact on a woman's sexuality."
Dr Andrea Salonia, author of the study - funded by a university, not by the confectionery industry - said women who had a low libido could become more amorous after eating chocolate.
She believes chocolate could be particularly medicinal for women who shun sex because they are suffering from premenstrual tension.
"Chocolate is not like a food, it's like a drug," Dr Salonia said. "Women who suffer mood swings as a result of their menstrual cycle may also suffer a dip in their sexual function. I strongly believe eating chocolate may improve their sexual function."
The research also looked at smoking and coffee consumption, but found no links with sexual enjoyment.
From The Sunday Times of London
Posted by lainey at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2004
Reason to live
If the ghost orchid was really only a phantom it was still such a bewitching one that it could seduce people to pursue it year after year and mile after miserable mile. If it was a real flower I wanted to keep coming back to Florida until I could see one. The reason was not that I love orchids. I don't even especially like orchids. What I wanted was to see this thing that people were drawn to in such a singular and powerful way. Everyone I was meeting connected to the orchid poaching had circled their lives around some great desire - Laroche had his crazy inspirations and orchid lovers had their intense devotion to their flowers and the Seminoles had their burning dedication to their history and culture - a desire that then answered questions for them about how to spend their time and their money and who their friends would be and where they would travel and what they did when they got there. It was religion. I wanted to want something as much as people wanted these plants, but it isn't part of my constitution. I think people my age are embarrassed by too much enthusiasm and believe that too much passion about anything is naive. I suppose I do have one unembarrassing passion - I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately. That night I called Laroche and told him I had just come back from looking for ghost orchids in the Fakahatchee but that I had seen nothing but bare roots. I said I was wondering whether perhaps the only place the ghost orchid bloomed was in the imagination of people who'd walked too long in the swamp. What I didn't say was that strong feelings always make me skeptical at first. What else I didn't say was that his life seemed to be filled with things that were just like the ghost orchid - wonderful to imagine and easy to fall in love with but a little fantastic and fleeting and out of reach.
- Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief
That's what I want my life to be. To constantly be falling in love with things that are a little fantastic and fleeting and out of reach, but so easy to imagine at the same time. I want to pursue my passions with pure unadulterated devotion. I don't want to be scared of constraints and limits or become embarrassed by passion when I reach that age when it's time to be cynical and jaded.
So, men can break my heart, people can disappoint me. But life will be worth living because there is so much wonder in the world for one to gasp and marvel at.
Posted by lainey at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2004
Right to Die
Powerful article on a terrible debilitating disease.
Posted by lainey at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2004
Solution to that darned Bush.
How bout having an Independent Republic of New York?
That's a pretty darn good idea I think! ;)
How cool our currency, the york, would be. Vera Wang could design our flags. Groucho Marx would be on our stamps. Bill Clinton could be president again.
Posted by lainey at 01:21 PM | Comments (2)
November 04, 2004
Refusing to choose
So you asked me if I had to choose only one love, which would I choose?
Books, music or films.
Thing is, they are inextricably joined into one, together with all my other loves. How can I be asked to choose? It will like having to choose between my five senses, or my four limbs. It will be like having to choose between my unborn children. It will be like the ridiculous question of who would I save if my mother or father is drowning.
It's all or nothing.
They become me.
So. Don't ask me to choose anymore.
Posted by lainey at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)