Posted on: February 12, 2009

Looking Through the Eyes of Food Love

Long-term compatibility can be challenged by incompatible eating habits

By Jeff Schnaufer
CTW Features

If you're watching what you eat to fit into those tight jeans this Valentine's Day, you may want to pay more attention to what your date eats. If you love sushi and your date craves cheeseburgers, you won't last long together. And there's no future for he who wants vegetables and she who prefers fruit.

According to Dr. Alan R. Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Illinois, a date's food preferences can help reveal whether you are headed for romance or regret. Hirsch has studied the personalities and food preferences of 18,631 people, allowing him to compile a list of food clues that emerge in everything from appetizers to desserts.

"I think it can be used as a shortcut to determining if this is someone you want to be with or not," says Hirsch, author of "What's Your Food Sign?: How to Use Food Cues to Find True Love" (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2005).

Meeting your date at a bar? Watch what they snack on, Hirsch says.

"People who like potato chips tend to be very achievement oriented and be natural leaders, can be irritated easily, like being stuck in line or stuck in traffic," Hirsch says. "People who like potato chips are most romantically compatible with people who like chips and people who like pretzels."

Likewise, Hirsch says, people who like pretzels are very flirtatious outgoing individuals and are the most universally romantic of the snack food world. Those who like nuts tend to be very cool headed in an emergency situation and are most romantically compatible with a person who likes nuts. People who like cheese curls tend to have integrity and see things in black and white. They are most compatible with those who like tortilla chips, who tend to be perfectionists and have high ideals, yet are most romantically compatible with someone who likes tortilla chips.

Heading out for ice cream after dinner?

"Someone who likes double chocolate chunk is potentially gregarious and loyal and true and is most likely to be with someone who likes strawberries and cream, who tend to be irritable, cranky pessimists," Hirsch says. "And people who like banana cream pie are empathic, easygoing well adjusted - compatible with everybody and universal romantics. Those who like chocolate chip tend to be the conquerors in our society, who succeed at school and are most romantically compatible with those who like butter pecan, who are most likely to be perfectionists."

Once you've found out whether a person is right for you, you can also use food as an aphrodisiac to heighten your appetite for each other.

"For newly dating couples I like to recommend aphrodisiac foods that have immediate effects, like chile or coffee - honey and ginger are also great," says Amy Reiley, the author of "Fork Me, Spoon Me: the sensual cookbook" (Life of Reiley, 2006). "For romantic dates early in a relationship, I also recommend interactive foods, like fondue, chocolate smothered brie or doing something like a make your own sushi night. That way, the pressure's off in the conversation department because you have this aphrodisiac activity to share. And interactive foods always lend themselves well to feeding one another."

Some foods, though, may dampen sexual arousal.

"There are foods I recommend avoiding as a part of a seductive meal, but this can vary based on personal preference," Reiley says. "As a general rule, I recommend avoiding red meat or, at the very least, have small, lean portions. (The exception is wild game, which is an excellent source of lean protein). A steak, however, will make most people want to go to bed, but alone and to sleep."