If you're planning a romantic evening with your guy and you're wondering what you should serve, perhaps you should consider including a few passion-boosting ingredients on the menu. Not a fan of shellfish? Oysters aren't the only food reputed for their aphrodisiac qualities.

You don't need to go halfway around the world or break the law-for instance, by experimenting with ingesting tiger bones-to find the best aphrodisiacs to give your sex life a jolt. You can get a cart-full of carnality right at your local supermarket. Chances are some of the items you have in your home right now have been thought of as aphrodisiacs at some point in history.

The idea that certain foods and herbs have the ability to ignite or enhance sexual arousal has appeared in just about every culture. It's also an idea with a long history. Aphrodisiacs show up in the writings of ancient peoples from Greece to Rome to Babylon.

In modern times, we may dismiss aphrodisiacs as superstition or snake oil, but the connection between sex and certain foods persists. There may even be some science to aphrodisiacs after all. These days, Western medicine is discovering the validity of many ancient health theories.

This relatively recent focus on alternative and holistic medicine has allowed some alleged aphrodisiacs to be studied under the microscope of modern science, sometimes with surprising results.