Sensual foods to boost your appetite

Food can add a delicious sensuality to sexual encounters. Think about breaking open a plump, ripe fig and sucking out the contents, or nibbling the top of an asparagus tip that is dripping with butter. Some foods are seductive just by virtue of their appearance and smell - oysters, for example. Even feeding your partner food from a spoon promotes intimacy by taking you back to the safe, nurturing world of childhood when all your needs were met by a loving parent.

Sharing a meal is a time-honoured way to make us feel romantic and intimate prior to lovemaking, especially if one partner has gone to the effort of preparing something special. Some couples consider eating an essential part of foreplay.

You can make a meal extra-sexy by eating with your fingers, letting the juices run over them and your chin, and gazing into your partner's eyes suggestively. The message is: 'I want to eat you, too!' If this doesn't appeal, try popping bite-sized morsels into each other's mouths. You can also move a piece of food such as a cherry back and forth using your lips and tongues.

Midnight Feast

This is a special kind of picnic for you and your partner to share in bed.

Forget about being sensible and pick foods that you can have fun with - preferably those that are juicy, saucy, fragrant, phallic, or red and succulent, such as cherries, raspberries or strawberries. If you're sweettoothed, go for chocolate and ice-cream. If you're hungry, go for cream cheese and bagels.

Lay it all out on your bed and take turns to practise seductive eating (show him how sensually you can eat a banana; show her how you can lick a split-open plum). When you are really aroused, try incorporating food into foreplay by, for example, drizzling cream over sensual areas such as her breasts and then licking it off. Be imaginative and don't worry about the mess!