Traditional Christmas and winter food and drinks such as mulled wine, eggnog, ginger bread and fruitcakes often call for more than a dash of what Jamie Oliver calls “festive spices“—cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.
These spices may give us more than just a taste of Christmas: they may be helping to bring on the Christmas cheer with subtle intoxicating effects. Could it be that these aromatic spices—especially nutmeg—are actually getting us high?
Spices That Are Good to Think (With)
Most of us don’t often reflect on what are, after all, commonly found ingredients on our spice racks.
But, with apologies to French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss who said that animals are “good to eat” but they are also “good to think,” spices aren’t just good to eat, they are good to think (with).
Spices and other aromatics have been a driving force in human history, with economic, political and religious significance. The aromatics frankincense and myrrh were, after all, brought by the Three Wise Men to the baby Jesus.
In addition to their use for flavour and food preservation, many spices and aromatics were used as drugs. First introduced to Europeans by Arab traders in the 12th century, nutmeg already had a long history of medicinal use around the Indian Ocean and in Asia, including as an aphrodisiac. Recent research suggests this aphrodisiac effect may have a clinical basis.
