Food Is The Secret Ingredient Your Dating Profile Needs, But There's A Catch

The wild world of online dating can seem like a lawless free-for-all, but the experts at Zoosk found that there's one thing almost everyone can agree one: Food is sexy — but it's specific foods that really get people going.

In a survey of over 7,000 single people, 3.7 million online dating profiles, and more than 364 million first messages, the site found that one food reigned supreme when it came to getting conversations going. And the sexiest food of them all is a tried-and-true favorite.

In what the dating service is calling The Ultimate Guide to Food and Dating, it found that mentioning guacamole is an almost surefire way to get a response. Namedropping the green stuff earned a 144% increase in inbound messages, followed by potatoes and chocolate with 101% and 100% bump, respectively. Even for people who don't use Zoosk, that's some prime information to have when setting up an appealing profile.

"Food preferences do have an impact on how we interact with each other romantically," the new report reads. "And for the most part, any time food and romance come together, it's very positive."

It's not just food itself, either. Responders were also into the simple idea of food. The terms "foodie" and "cook" garnered an increase in responses, too. The dating site notes that culinary mentions only go so far, though. Having food somewhere in the profile helps get initial conversations going, but continuing to talk about food isn't recommended, since everything but eggplant has less than a 5% increase in responses. For reasons the site can't explain, eggplant mentions gets 10% more replies, though it could have nothing to do with food and more to do with something else the veggie is associated with.

Blame it on the rom-com industrial complex, because responders' sexiest foods seem to be pulled right from every Julia Roberts flick. Chocolate-covered strawberries, wine and cheese, and oysters all continue to rank high on the list of sexy foods and likely will as long as wining-and-dining fantasies revolve around classic aphrodisiacs.

Surprisingly, there were only two foods to avoid in a profile: Mentioning fried chicken and yams earned fewer incoming messages, even though they're pretty delicious.

So go on and make your dating profile a smorgasbord of different eats. Just choose wisely: Even though it seems that the way to someone's heart really is through their stomach, it's not always a straightforward path.