When it comes to sex, we tend to have a lot of questions, but due to the private nature of the act, there don’t tend to be as many answers available as we would like.
Is it good to eat before sex? What about after sex? Is it good to drink water after sex? Does drinking water after sex really prevent pregnancy?
These are all questions that people have asked, and not many have answered. Let’s take the opportunity to investigate these questions today.
Read More: When Does a Woman Stop Being Sexually Active?
First, is it good to eat before sex?
If you unpeel all of its elements of emotional connection and, well, lust, we can recognize sex for what it is: a form of exercise, sometimes vigorous, that is usually pretty short in duration, depending on the people involved and their inclinations.
So, would it be a good idea to eat before short, vigorous exercise?
It depends.
Eating a big meal right before any form of exercise is generally a bad idea. A stomach that is full of food and subjected to a lot of movement is, quite frankly, uncomfortable. This is due to the fact that during exercise blood is directed to your muscles, which leaves less of it available for digestion giving you that crampy feeling.
Unlike most other forms of exercise, sex tends to be more spontaneous, but if you have the opportunity or foresight, then it’s best to eat 1-3 hours before sex- aka exercise– especially if you plan on eating a big meal.
If it comes down to a choice between eating food before sex or after, eating afterwards would help you avoid cramping or any other feelings of discomfort..
Other questions that have their origins in folklore focus on the benefits of drinking water during sex.
Is it good to drink water after sex? Does drinking water after sex prevent pregnancy?
Let’s examine these more closely.
According to WebMD, there’s no harm in drinking water after sex. A matter of fact, as with any exercise, drinking water after sex is a good way to rehydrate. Drinking enough water to pee after sex can also help prevent a bothersome UTI (urinary tract infection) by helping to flush out bacteria before they cause infection.
However, when it comes to the question of whether drinking water can prevent pregnancy, the answer is a resounding NO.
Provided all other conditions are ideal (a woman has recently ovulated, is not using birth control, and just had unprotected sex), chances are good that conception has occurred before she even makes it downstairs to get that glass of water.
Simple biology can tell you that this myth …is just a myth.
The idea behind this myth is that when you drink water after sex it automatically flushes your uterus out and prevents conception from occurring, and/or prevents a newly conceived embryo from implanting in the uterus.
False, false, false.
When you drink water, it goes from your stomach into your small intestine where most of it is absorbed into your bloodstream. The remaining goes into your large intestine. Any excess water in your bloodstream that your body doesn’t need gets filtered by the kidneys before being stored in the bladder as urine and eliminated from the body when you urinate.
Note that during the process of drinking water there is no dam of water that gets released into the uterus flushing out sperm, eggs, or embryos.
It’s better to ask than to assume…
Ultimately, it’s better to ask about the validity of these old wives tales than to assume they are either true or false, especially when it comes to topics as serious as sex and pregnancy.
The takeaway here is that you should drink water to stay hydrated after sex, but just don’t expect any contraceptive benefits from drinking it.