Everyone knows that oysters are meant to be an aphrodisiac, but necking a shell full of sea water on a first date doesn’t always feel like the sexiest dining experience.
But now we have scientific evidence that suggests they were worth eating after all, as couples who eat more seafood tend to have more sex and get pregnant faster than those who don’t.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology And Metabolism and conducted at Harvard University, found that not only does fish have a positive effect on women’s fertility, but men’s too.
The study came about because scientists were worried that mercury toxins accumulating in fish were actually harming women’s chances of conception.
But, after studying the food diaries of 500 couples, who were trying for a child, they found the opposite.
Dr Audrey Gaskins, one of the authors of the study, said: “Our study suggests seafood can have many reproductive benefits, including shorter time to pregnancy and more frequent sexual activity.”
So how much do you need to be eating? The study found couples eating two servings (or more) per week spent a significantly high frequency of time between the sheets, and had a shorter wait to have a baby.
The results revealed that 92% of couples who ate seafood more than twice a week were pregnant at the end of one year. In comparison, just 79% of couples who consumed less seafood were pregnant after a year.
Currently the researchers are not sure what causes this positive link between fish and conception (and no, they say that it isn’t just that the couples are having sex more).
They suggested one reason is that seafood could improve the quality of semen, embryos or ovulation. Dr Gaskins added: “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.”