Saltpeter in prison food

[snopes]

http://www.latimes.com/features/heal...2286977.column

Question: My boyfriend was recently released from prison and believes saltpeter was put in the food. How do you remove the effects after numerous years?

Answer: Saltpeter (potassium nitrate) is falsely believed to lower libido. Youngsters in boarding schools and summer camps, as well as men in the military or in prison, have perpetuated the myth that they are being fed saltpeter.

If time and support don't overcome your boyfriend's sexual difficulties, counseling may help. Hormonal assessment also may be needed.

[Floater]

Two elderly gentlemen were sitting on the bench outside the Old People's Home discussing life, the universe and everything. One of them says to the other "Do you remember the salpeter they used to put in our food when we were in the army to make us less horny?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"I think it has started to work now."

[Joostik]

In the Dutch army they supposedly used camphor for this -- or so the story goes...

[Eddylizard]

Over here, the stories always have it that it was "bromide". What~bromide I have no idea.

I seem to hear potassium bromide in the lower regions of my more erratically filed memories.

[catty5nutz]

Another variation is that the Nazis put bromide into the food of female concentraton camp prisoners to keep them from having periods.

[Floater]

When I think of it, in Swedish stories they use sodium carbonate.

[Skeptic]

Originally Posted by catty5nutz

Another variation is that the Nazis put bromide into the food of female concentraton camp prisoners to keep them from having periods.

It would not have been needed. Nature is fairly smart in that it stops the ability to reproduce as soon as it become unlikely that the child would not survive. So it is not the fact that they were in concentration camps, rather that they were starved, overworked, and cold.