Testicles as an aphrodisiac

Almost two thousand years ago the Latin writer Pliny recommended the eating of testicles in cases of poor sexual performance. Testes are on the menu in many countries. In Spain this delicacy is called cojones (with the same connotations of courage and manliness as English ‘balls’). Fighting bulls from the arenas are of course the best suppliers. In the famous Florian restaurant in Barcelona they serve testicles, giving the name of the bull, its weight, a brief description, the pedigree, place and time of death and the name of the bullfighter responsible. Cojones taste of sweetbreads, but that’s all that can be said: it’s an illusion to think that they can be used to raise the testosterone level, since virtu­ally all the remains of the testes will go down the drain, and the tiny amount of testosterone that is absorbed by the intestines will be immediately broken down in the liver.