I love Anthony Bourdain. If the folds in his chef hat symbolized his personality 99% of them would represent crass sarcasm. And 1% of them would hint at good time sincerity. Perfect. Just how I like all my food/travel shows. And while watching his show last night I felt like he had read my mind. In fact, my journal. The show was titled “Food Porn“.

Being a woman who loves her food and her carnal delights, putting the two together sometimes seems like a natural blend. But back up. I’m not talking about combining the two. I’m talking about replacing one with the other. Follow me back in time about a month…

I have a creativity board in my office (space). I pin up pictures, fabric, sticks, leaves, jewelery, and whatever else I can pin to cork board. I use it as a space to create moods and play with inspiration. And on this particular day the mood I wanted to create was sexual passion.

I thumbed for pictures through about 12 magazines (yes, I read a lot of magazines) and realized that I had found ONE picture. One! Not ready to give up I moved to a second stack of magazines and started finding pictures instantly. But wait. None of these pictures had people in them.

The pictures were all of food. A close up of deep red, steamed cherries in bourbon and phyllo dough, a picture of a hand gently swirling rich red wine in a glass, figs on a wood cutting board with melted chocolate. Are you feeling tingly yet?

When I stopped to think about it, it didn’t seem unusual. Is it possible that we have replaced human sexuality with food sensuality?

We all fall into some of the pattern behaviors. Favorite quickies at a taco stand, pho, or dare I say it…name brand fast food joints. Or perhaps your into Tantric: seven courses, drinks, bread, appetizers, salad, soup, main course and an explosively fabulous dessert. No need to finish with a cigarette, just have a wonderfully rich cup of bitter coffee. Or maybe you’re into something off the books, that hole in the wall foreign food place that you just can’t get enough of, but that everyone is sure you’re gonna catch something from.

And food, food you can enjoy in public. And in groups. And you can pay for when you aren’t getting enough at home. We’re encouraged to have it when we wake up, at noon and in the evenings. Hello. Yes please. And other bonuses may include but are not limited to: while feeling guilty the morning after there’s no fear of “oh my god, will this meal ask me for college tuition in 18 years?” or “will this meal ignore me at work or forget to call?”.

Back to my inspiration board. Are my only options for sexuality or sensuality Playboy or Gourmet? Well, at this point, my board remains half filled. The rest is left to my imagination.

What about you? Do you think we’ve replaced human sensuality with food? Or perhaps given food a more prominent and hallowed place in our society? Is this a problem?