Seafood is sexy? Couples who eat lots of seafood get pregnant more quickly
A new study reveals that increasing the amount of seafood you and your partner eat might be able to expedite the process of getting pregnant.
Eating more seafood = more sex
The study by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health was just published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Researchers found a super interesting correlation – that couples who eat a lot of seafood have sex more often and can fall pregnant faster than couples who eat little seafood.
The researchers looked at the seafood intake and sexual activity of 1000 individuals (who made up 500 male/female couples). These couples were all trying to get pregnant. The women in the group were 18 to 44 years old and the mean were all aged 18 and up.
During the study period, researchers monitored the couples’ daily seafood intake and also how often they had sex.
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More sex = higher chance of pregnancy
The study showed that couples with the highest seafood intake (eight or more seafood servings in the span of one menstrual cycle) had 22 per cent more sex than the couples who ate less seafood.
“Couples who ate eight or more seafood servings between them had a 95 per cent higher chance of falling pregnant compared to couples consuming less seafood,” SBS reports.
The researchers also found that 92 per cent of the couples who ate two serves or more of seafood each week fell pregnant after twelve months.
A significantly lower 79 per cent of couples who ate less seafood fell pregnant during the same period.
The study concludes:
“Higher male and female seafood intake were associated with higher frequency of sexual intercourse and fecundity among a large prospective cohort of couples attempting pregnancy.”
(ICYMI: Fecundity is another word for fertility.)
“Our results stress the importance of not only female, but also male diet on time to pregnancy, and suggests that both partners should be incorporating more seafood into their diets for the maximum fertility benefit,” says Audrey Gaskins of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health said.
Why tho?
The jury is still out on the seafood and sex connection, but there are theories that couples who eat a lot of seafood may have a healthier approach to diet and lifestyle in general.
“So you can expect them to have more physical activity, to take more vitamins, to eat other healthy food and therefore to have healthier sexual life,” endocrinologist Dr Franck Mauvais-Jarvis told CBS news.
He also notes that “other studies have shown that fish high in omega three fatty acids like salmon and tuna increase the quality of couples’ sperm and eggs having a positive impact on the new embryo.”
That said, he points out that lots of women avoid fish altogether when they’re trying to conceive, due to worries about mercury content.
To fish or not to fish?
So what to do if you’re keen to get pregnant and want to jump on the sexy seafood train, but are worried about what lies within?
Currently, women are warned not to eat the types of fish that are more likely to contain mercury.
Health guidelines now recommend that pregnant women:
- Limit to one serve (150g) per fortnight – billfish (swordfish, broadbill and marlin) and shark (flake), with no other fish eaten in that fortnight.
- Limit to one serve (150g) per week – orange roughy (deep sea perch) or catfish, with no other fish eaten that week.
- Eat 2–3 serves per week – of any other fish or seafood (for example, salmon or tuna)
Source: the Victorian Government’s Better Health Channel
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