Food vs. Sex: Does food win?

Who’d give up sex for food, right? Well apparently 4,000 people in London preferred to eat instead of having sex.  Here’s what the survey had to say: One in three singles would rather go without sex for a year than their favourite food, a new study has revealed.

And of the 4,000 people who participated in the Love Bites: Dating and Dining survey, some were happy to sacrifice action between the sheets for salad.

32% of those people were women compared to 16% who were men.  But it is not just singles, in potentially unsatisfactory sexual relationships, who were willing to relinquish a year of loving.  The study interviewed an extra 3,500 married individuals and despite being in a committed long-term relationship, 28 % chose their perfect meal over fun in the bedroom. While a majority of respondents willing to sacrifice sex did so for steak and chocolate, some were comfortable with depriving themselves for the sake of a caprese salad, sushi and fresh fruit.  The puzzling results raise in turn, questions about the quality of sex that those who answered in favour of food, are having. “People often say things like they’d pick money or sleep or food over sex. If you find yourself picking food over sex, you need to approach sex a bit more like food and vary your diet,” the Daily Mail quoted sex therapist and author Ian Kerner as telling MSNBC. “I think this shows that people take sex for granted, or that they’re not enjoying sex enough to really value it appropriately,” he said.

While in Bangalore...
Closer to home, we asked Bangaloreans what they have to say and here are our findings. And we began with a single chef. “Food,” was his one word response.

“I am not sure — if I had the chance of nailing a handsome man as opposed to going for an exclusive dinner that happens once a year or something, I’d pick the dinner. But then what if I don’t get a second chance with the guy? This is confusing…” says Rashmi Sen, an entertainment professional.

“Food — any day!” was the response from another senior manager in a real estate company.

A leading female actor from the Kannada film industry says food always comes first. “Everything else can happen later,” she adds.

“You can’t think of sex when you’re hungry. You can’t think of sex when you have a piece of brilliant steak, cooked to perfect, before you. But it also depends on who the person is. You can see a dish and pretty much predict that the meal is going to be good. With sex, one can never be too sure!” says Suresh K, an entrepreneur.

However, if you thought that everyone wants to eat all the time, you’re wrong. Meghna R, a media professional, says, “Sex first! Food is much more delicious after that. But I bet everyone will say they’d go for food instead. Most of my friends say that. But I guess it’s difficult to get over the inbuilt prudishness. Officially no one will admit to the face that they’d much rather have sex; that’s why we have such a large population and, arguably, the second largest porn industry in the world. I guess we got all that from just eating!”

Entertainment professional, Viren Khanna, doesn’t mince words when it comes to talking about the subject. “It depends. But in an ideal situation, I’d have sex first and then eat!”

Chef Vivvek Salunkhe goes on a hilarious trip the minute we ask him the question.

“To begin with I don’t believe this survey. The Brits are lying! But yes I do agree food and sex go hand-in-hand. In fact, during the times of the Nawabs, they were served Palangtod Soups for better action. Well, both these things give you satisfaction and you can’t compare them. You can’t think of good sex and action in a hungry stomach. An empty stomach is equal to an empty mind and the result is no action. Obviously, you will be thinking of food all the time. I remember, once I had just got back from my workout and was starving. I walked into my restaurant and there was a group of gorgeous women sitting right there, but I didn’t look at them and walked past straight into the kitchen to grab a bite.”

Says Vijay Malhotra, a Bangalore-based entrepreneur, “To me, food is a matter of nourishment. Ban me if you like but I have travelled the world and enjoyed some really good food but I’d never give up good sex for that!” Aye aye to that!

(Some names have been changed
on request)
With  inputs from Priyadarshini Nandy and Shilpa Bansal