Eating McDonald’s after sex will not get you pregnant
There are more than a few secret ingredients behind McDonald’s famous fries, but a fertility drug is not one of them. A British blog called Channel Mum inadvertently revealed one of the U.K.’s stranger secrets when it surveyed 1,500 moms on the tricks they used to get pregnant. Three percent of all who responded professed to eating McDonald’s fries immediately after sex in the hopes it would give them better luck.
Conceiving is apparently no easy task; 71 percent of those surveyed used some wacky technique to boost their chances. But while 3 percent is just a small and likely unrepresentative sliver of the population of Britain, we are still struggling to understand why anyone would think this might work at all. Though getting laid and eating fries doesn’t sound like a bad time, it probably wouldn’t have any positive medical effect. There’s little to nothing nutritious or revitalizing about a greasy basket of salty McDonald’s fries.
To confirm this, and to make sure there wasn’t some sneaky perk to the potatoes we didn’t know about, we turned to an expert: Sarah Rueven is a registered dietitian and founder of Rooted Wellness, which focuses on supporting women’s health from preconception through early parenthood.
“There is absolutely no credibility to the statement that eating McDonald’s after sex will help you achieve pregnancy,” Rueven told The Daily Meal. “In fact, it may do quite the opposite. Studies have demonstrated that eating a diet high in trans fats and red meat may reduce fertility, whereas a diet rich in plants, whole grains, and healthy fats has been demonstrated to provide fertility-boosting effects.”
Well that’s a bummer. We’re not sure where these moms-to-be got the idea, but there doesn’t appear to be any science behind it.
The other responses were just as puzzling. Thirty-seven percent of moms admitted to eating dark chocolate every day as a fertility boost, which also doesn’t sound like a bad time. Other suggestions included pineapples, pineapple juice, and going on a wild night out as a form of reverse psychology. While these are all fun activities to enjoy before you’re stuck indoors with a screaming infant, they probably won’t make you more likely to conceive - whereas these 15 foods might actually work to make you more fertile.
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