Avoid Eating This Type Of Vegetable Before Having Sex

Enjoying intimate time with your significant other sometimes involves setting the mood. Whether that's going out for a romantic meal, lighting scented candles around your home, or just cuddling up to watch a good movie, how you feel before sex matters. 

What about food? Aside from garlic breath and overdoing it with alcohol, there are other concerns. You may have heard that avoiding spicy foods before sex is a good idea. The fear is that particularly spicy meals could cause acid reflux and indigestion and send you to the bathroom with diarrhea when you, instead, should be heating things up in the bedroom. 

Turns out there's a generally healthy type of vegetable that you should add to the "avoid eating" list as well. We're talking about cruciferous vegetables. Examples include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, radish, and turnip. The main concern here is flatulence. So unless you want to pass gas and potentially deal with a smelly after-effect, you're better off keeping these vegetables for meals that don't come before sex. 

All vegetables contain fiber and this is why they're recommended as part of a healthy diet. Fiber promotes healthy digestion and helps you poop. But the problem with cruciferous vegetables, in particular, is their sulfur content — it's on the high side. 

While being excellent sources of antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and K; folate; beta-carotene; lutein; and zeaxanthin, cruciferous vegetables are difficult to digest, meaning your gut bacteria have to go to work on sulfur-containing glucosinolates and raffinose, an activity that gives rise to bloating and gas, explained registered dietician Jessica Cording via mindbodygreen. "As glucosinolates break down in the intestines, they form other compounds like hydrogen sulfide, which is why gas passed after eating these foods smells like sulfur," added the expert.

Unless you want flatulence that smells like "rotten egg," these are foods you shouldn't think about eating before having sex. But wait, does this mean broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower should be off your list throughout the entire day if there's a chance of you having sex that evening? Not necessarily.  

It goes without saying that your body and how you react to cruciferous vegetables might be different from what experts or scientists typically think may happen. So if you're good with roasted Brussels sprouts on a dinner date, then you don't have to worry about digestive side effects. What you eat and avoid before sex may be particular to you. You can, alternatively, try experimenting with other vegetables like carrots, spinach, sweet potatoes, zucchini, green beans, and squash. 

Also, consuming small portions of cruciferous vegetables that are well-cooked can mitigate some of the flatulence-related concerns. Cooked broccoli is already broken down when compared with the raw kind so you may not experience as much gas. Additionally, cooking vegetables reduces the amount of lectins, naturally occurring proteins found in plants that have been associated with nausea, vomiting, stomach upset, diarrhea, bloating, and gas. Some research has even looked at the role of lectins in inhibiting the absorption of minerals like calcium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc and causing unfavorable autoimmune responses, but more studies are needed to confirm these theories. 

Interestingly, cruciferous vegetables aren't the only culprits when it comes to gas. Have you ever wondered why you're not supposed to chew gum before sex or why you shouldn't have a fruit salad before getting intimate with your partner? Yep, these are flatulence-causing activities/foods too.