# How can one make their sperm taste better? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858 "2006-03-03T02:37:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/21 "2006-03-10T16:06:09Z")
How can one make their sperm taste better? WAG Salt and pepper? ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/22 "2006-03-10T16:14:41Z")
A woman I used to…date asked me to avoid eating meat. Said that made a difference, and, of course, that was all I needed to become a temporary vegetarian. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/23 "2006-03-10T20:55:41Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] and it’s more in the eye of the beholder [/QUOTE] Please try _not_ to get it in anyone’s eye. It hurts. Has anyone done any kind of real study? You hear stuff about pineapple, but is there any real proof anything helps? You certainly can’t change the pH of your body by eating food (or perhaps I should put it that “if you eat things that change the pH of your body, you will die, and those things are therefore not considered foods.”) So the idea that eating acidic foods will change the pH of your semen seems incredibly unlikely to me. I’m inclined to think that most of the recommendations are simple superstition, especially given how much they match up to people’s general ideas about what sorts of foods make you healthy. At least until I hear about a double-blind study. No obvious jokes about volunteering as a subject, please. ---
**Author:** ![metj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@metj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metj)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/24 "2006-03-10T21:52:53Z")
A little OT question - is it possible to get heartburn from ingesting semen? Nothin’ says lovin’ like ‘honey could you get me the Tums’ ---
**Author:** ![Gladstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90db22/32.png) [@Gladstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gladstone)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/25 "2006-03-10T22:27:49Z")
Don’t all the widely varying and sometimes contradictory responses here indicate that there is no answer? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/26 "2006-03-10T22:29:39Z")
Maybe the PH change is the wrong way to phrase it, but what you eat and drink affects your other bodily fluids so why wouldn’t it also affect semen? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/27 "2006-03-10T22:57:48Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] Maybe the PH change is the wrong way to phrase it, but what you eat and drink affects your other bodily fluids so why wouldn’t it also affect semen? [/QUOTE] Well, I would believe garlic and onions affect it, as the odors of those are certainly reproduced in sweat. And I’ve heard that asparagus can lend semen an odd taste, though I’ve never run into it myself. Certainly believable, given the odor it gives your urine. But the general assertion that what you eat and drink affects your bodily fluids - aside from these few specific examples whose presence make themselves known in all that you exude - again seems odd to me. What other bodily fluids have you tasted? I’ve never heard that you can make your sweat taste different, or your urine, depending on your diet. I’m not convinced that bodily fluids mostly _can_ be altered in that way. What bodily fluids are you talking about, and how can you affect them with what you eat and drink? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/28 "2006-03-10T23:24:12Z")
[QUOTE=Excalibre] Well, I would believe garlic and onions affect it, as the odors of those are certainly reproduced in sweat. And I’ve heard that asparagus can lend semen an odd taste, though I’ve never run into it myself. Certainly believable, given the odor it gives your urine. But the general assertion that what you eat and drink affects your bodily fluids - aside from these few specific examples whose presence make themselves known in all that you exude - again seems odd to me. What other bodily fluids have you tasted? I’ve never heard that you can make your sweat taste different, or your urine, depending on your diet. I’m not convinced that bodily fluids mostly _can_ be altered in that way. What bodily fluids are you talking about, and how can you affect them with what you eat and drink? [/QUOTE] A few examples, you already mentioned sweat, I know people who have tasted urine and they attest that it tastes different depending on the persons diet, they even say you can taste the alcohol if the person had been drinking. The color and odor of urine certainly fluctuates depending on vitimin levels and such. I wouldn’t discount the odor factor either, smell is a strong componant of taste. Perhaps not taste, but blood is affected by diet (sugar levels, alcohol etc). I’m sure there’s more, but that’s what I’ve got off the top of my head. I’m not aware of studies about this, so all I could offer currently is personal experience. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/29 "2006-03-10T23:36:34Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] A few examples, you already mentioned sweat, I know people who have tasted urine and they attest that it tastes different depending on the persons diet, they even say you can taste the alcohol if the person had been drinking. The color and odor of urine certainly fluctuates depending on vitimin levels and such. I wouldn’t discount the odor factor either, smell is a strong componant of taste. Perhaps not taste, but blood is affected by diet (sugar levels, alcohol etc). I’m sure there’s more, but that’s what I’ve got off the top of my head. I’m not aware of studies about this, so all I could offer currently is personal experience. [/QUOTE] You have friends into kinky sex, huh? Urine is a bit different, though, as its exact composition depends on what the body’s getting rid of. Nitrogenous wastes, of course, but also various salts and the metabolic products of a lot of different things. Semen is made for a specific purpose - it’s not just a dumping ground. It’s content is designed to carry sperm through the harsh and forbidding environment of the female reproductive system. I would imagine the production tolerances, if you will, are a bit tight. I’m a fan of sucking dick, but in my opinion at least, semen is not really a good end unto itself. My general experience leads me to believe that there’s probably things you can do to make it taste particularly bad, but it’s never going to be a mouthful of crème brulée. I’d believe you can make it taste considerably _worse_ than the baseline by eating the wrong things, but I’m doubting you can make it substantially better. Besides, again, I’m skeptical largely because so many rumors get passed about the subject but there doesn’t seem to be anything substantial to back them up. I tend towards a good deal of skepticism. Only the most dedicated of cocksuckers could possibly have enough samples to really know these things, and even then that’s only assuming they got dietary records and kept notes. The more usual experience strikes me as just as problematic as every other instance of people observing things and repeating them - simply a lack of real data to lead to verifiable results. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/30 "2006-03-10T23:43:53Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve never heard that you can make your sweat taste different, or your urine, depending on your diet. Might that just reflect the fact that fewer people are in the habit of tasting sweat or urine? Clearly, if you can make your sweat or urine smell different (as you yourself accept in the first line of your post), you can make them taste different, too. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/31 "2006-03-10T23:46:12Z")
[QUOTE=Excalibre] You have friends into kinky sex, huh? Urine is a bit different, though, as its exact composition depends on what the body’s getting rid of. Nitrogenous wastes, of course, but also various salts and the metabolic products of a lot of different things. Semen is made for a specific purpose - it’s not just a dumping ground. It’s content is designed to carry sperm through the harsh and forbidding environment of the female reproductive system. I would imagine the production tolerances, if you will, are a bit tight. I’m a fan of sucking dick, but in my opinion at least, semen is not really a good end unto itself. My general experience leads me to believe that there’s probably things you can do to make it taste particularly bad, but it’s never going to be a mouthful of crème brulée. I’d believe you can make it taste considerably _worse_ than the baseline by eating the wrong things, but I’m doubting you can make it substantially better. Besides, again, I’m skeptical largely because so many rumors get passed about the subject but there doesn’t seem to be anything substantial to back them up. I tend towards a good deal of skepticism. Only the most dedicated of cocksuckers could possibly have enough samples to really know these things, and even then that’s only assuming they got dietary records and kept notes. The more usual experience strikes me as just as problematic as every other instance of people observing things and repeating them - simply a lack of real data to lead to verifiable results. [/QUOTE] Not saying that I have all the answers, just offering up my experience. I suppose I could conduct a more detailed study (It’s not like my BF would mind), but not sure I want to mess with my diet too much, trying to lose weight! Russell ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/32 "2006-03-11T00:05:39Z")
I have a completely unfounded theory that funky-tasting semen can be blamed partly on the fact that it shares an exit passage with urine, which can be rich in urea and other stuff. I would not want to suck on the stovepipe of a person who consumed a lot of coffee and excess protein (meat or vegetable). ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/33 "2006-03-11T00:07:17Z")
And as for the effects of ingestion of garlic, many body effluents, fluids, excretions, etc. are affected by it. For many people, sweat is one. Whether it tastes different, I can’t say, but it surely does smell garlicky on some people. And I must offer testimony here that at least one female partner of mine did exude the odor of garlic from her nether regions, to the extent that it precluded continued activity that I usually adore, rendering the rest of the evening pretty much a waste. But I digress. Fact is, garlic is something that can show up lots of places in the body. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/34 "2006-03-11T00:16:32Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] Might that just reflect the fact that fewer people are in the habit of tasting sweat or urine? Clearly, if you can make your sweat or urine smell different (as you yourself accept in the first line of your post), you can make them taste different, too. [/QUOTE] I guess I’m simply not inclined to believe it’s true to a substantial degree until there’s evidence. Obviously it’s hard to gather anything beyond anecdotes on the subject, but like I said, I tend toward skepticism. I’m not inclined to believe many of the silly sexual rumors that get spread around. ---
**Author:** ![Tabula\_Rasa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@Tabula\_Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabula_Rasa)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/35 "2006-03-11T04:15:45Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Stop smoking. What kind of alkali foods are there? I mean, lutefisk, but what else fits in here? [/QUOTE] Here’s a list of alkaline foods: > **[Acid / Alkaline Food Chart](https://www.liferesearchuniversal.com/acid.html)** > > The Health Department ... The Acid / Alkaline Food Chart ! It doesn’t include one of the all-time best, red chile peppers. Green, too, for that matter. The chiles grow in tremendously alkaline soil. They can sometimes forms suds in cooking water, they are so far to the soapy end of the pH scale. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/36 "2006-03-11T05:41:20Z")
I would gradually feed the sperm an increasing variety of gourmet foods and wines with a brief lecture about the relevant salient qualities. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858/37 "2006-03-12T17:52:15Z")
Any of the aformentioned food concocktions will make it taste better if applied topically, too, but if s/he can taste it (non-topically) s/he’s doing it wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-one-make-their-sperm-taste-better/346858.md?page=1)