Prawns, White Beans & Greens: A Dinner for Sperm Health

Oysters have carried a certain reputation for centuries.

The explanation people often reach for now is zinc, and on that point at least the numbers are fairly extraordinary. Oysters contain more zinc per serving than any other common food.

That does not make them an aphrodisiac, and eating six of them before dinner is not going to transform anyone's fertility. It does make them a useful reminder that some of the nutrients involved in normal male reproductive function are found in very ordinary food.

Which is really the point of this dinner.

Male preconception nutrition does not need to arrive as a fertility protocol. It can look a lot like prawns, beans, greens, garlic, olive oil and a piece of bread dragged through whatever is left in the bottom of the pan.

Zinc has established roles in normal male reproductive function and sperm production, with seafood, meat, beans, seeds and wholegrains among the foods that contribute it. Selenium is involved in normal sperm development too, and seafood is one useful source. Sperm cell membranes also contain high concentrations of polyunsaturated fats, which is one of several reasons oily fish belongs comfortably in a varied diet.

None of this means tonight's dinner is doing something therapeutic to sperm.

It simply means that if you are both paying a little more attention to how you eat in the months before trying for a baby, there are perfectly good reasons for seafood, legumes, seeds, vegetables and good fats to turn up regularly.

And preferably in combinations you would make even if nobody had mentioned fertility.

That part matters. Food you cook purely because it is supposedly good for you tends to have a fairly short life. Food you actually want to eat has a much better chance of appearing again on a Tuesday three months from now.

This one takes about twenty minutes.

Prawns, White Beans & Greens

Serves 2 generously
5 minutes to prepare
15 minutes to cook

Method

1. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant and beginning to pop. Tip them onto a plate and set aside.

2. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the same pan and reduce the heat slightly. Add the garlic and chilli and cook gently for around 2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant but still pale.

3. Add the cannellini beans with a small splash of water and season with salt and pepper. Press roughly a third of the beans with the back of a spoon and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the mixture becomes creamy but still loose. Transfer to a bowl.

4. Increase the heat and add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Add the prawns in a single layer and cook until opaque and cooked through, turning once.

5. Return the beans to the pan and fold through the spinach or cavolo nero until just wilted. Add the prawns back in and gently combine.

6. Squeeze over half the lemon, scatter with the toasted pumpkin seeds and parsley, and serve with the remaining lemon cut into wedges.

Crusty bread is not optional. There will be garlicky bean liquid left in the bottom of the pan and it is probably the best part.

A few notes

Prawns bring zinc and selenium to the plate, while the beans and pumpkin seeds contribute more zinc alongside protein, fibre and a collection of other nutrients that do not need individual marketing departments.

If prawns are not your thing, sardines or a good tin of tuna can work here too. The result will be different, but still very good.

Brazil nuts are exceptionally rich in selenium, although the amount can vary considerably depending on where they were grown. If you want to add one, chop it finely and scatter it over the finished dish. This is one of those foods where more is not automatically better.

If pregnancy is already part of the picture, freshly cooked prawns can fit within Australian seafood guidance. The important distinction is that they are cooked through and eaten fresh rather than served raw or as chilled ready-to-eat seafood. The specific mercury restrictions in pregnancy apply to certain higher-mercury fish rather than prawns.

And if the oyster fact at the beginning has stayed with you, cook them. The zinc is still there.

Measurements are Australian. One tablespoon is 20 ml.

Eat it together

Preconception has a habit of happening on one side of a relationship.

She reads. She tracks. She remembers the supplements. She notices when something in the fridge is running low and starts thinking about pregnancy months before there is one. He can be completely supportive and still somehow end up standing beside the preparation rather than inside it.

Dinner is obviously not what corrects that imbalance.

But eating the same food, making some of the same changes and treating preparation as something you are both doing is a better place to start than designing a separate fertility regime for either person.

Male health belongs in the conversation for the same reason hers does, but there is no need to turn dinner into a test of how seriously either of you is taking this.

Make the prawns. Tear some bread. Eat together.

That is enough for tonight.