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Maca: Benefits Beyond the Bedroom

High in the Andes Mountains, there’s a humble root vegetable that’s reputed to be a source of the legendary strength and endurance of the Inca people. This vegetable, known as maca, has been cultivated for over 2,000 years. Lately, it’s become fashionable as a globally marketed aphrodisiac. But, I believe that Nature is never that narrow-minded. While some of the libido-boosting claims are true, they’re only a sample of the health brilliance maca can help you attain.

Above ground, maca (known variously as Lepidium meyenii or L. peruvianum) is an unobtrusive ground-hugging plant. It’s truly a buried treasure, though. The edible root looks like a turnip or radish. It comes in a range of colors, including cream, gray, yellow, purple, yellow and purple, red, and black. (You’ll see in a bit why that’s important to know.) Maca smells faintly of butterscotch, and can have a sharp taste that packs a zing like mustard or wasabi—which is why locals prefer to boil, roast, or dry and/or grind it into flour before including it in their daily dishes. To me, these preparations make it taste and smell more like toasted oats.

Maca grows wild in many locations in South America, and it’s also being cultivated elsewhere. But beware: Maca’s medical miracles come only from the plants that grow at 13,000 to 15,000 feet in isolated valleys of the central Peruvian Andes. Here, the environmental conditions are extreme and treacherous, the soils are poor, and the air is thin. At this altitude just walking around is challenging, let alone doing any work. My last visit was a few years back now, but my memories of the days harvesting alongside the many generations of family farmers in the maca fields, and then trying all things maca at the international maca festival—from wine and chocolate to jams—will never fade.

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