Updated 6/7/2022
There are plenty of reasons to prefer swallowing cum over spitting it out. Maybe it’s pure convenience (no cleanup required!). Maybe you do it because your partner likes it. Maybe you slurp it up because you like it yourself. But save for the ease and eroticism, is there any real benefit to swallowing cum? I know it’s full of protein — could it help me get freaking jacked?
According to Joshua Gonzalez, a board-certified urologist and sexual health advisor at Astroglide, we don’t actually know. “There’s some controversy about how much protein is in semen,” he tells me. “Protein concentration is tough to measure accurately, and it depends on the measurement technique employed.” For example, common methods of measuring protein like the Lowry protein assay (which utilizes a chemical color change) and spectrophotometry (which uses an electromagnetic transmission) can yield entirely different results.
Despite these difficulties, there still have been numerous studies that attempt to find an answer. “One study suggested that there are five grams of protein in every 100 milliliters of semen,” Gonzalez continues. “Assuming the average man ejaculates 3.5 milliliters of semen, that equals a little more than 0.17 grams of protein.”
That’s, uh, not a lot. In fact, I’d really have to put in some work if I wanted to meet my daily protein intake through semen alone. The National Institutes of Health recommends that individuals consume 0.36 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight — for me, that comes out to 46 grams of protein per day. In order to achieve that through semen, I’d need to consume 270 average-sized loads. All in one day! I’m sorry, but I can’t do it. I’m just not that sexually fun and adventurous.
Let’s say you are, though. Assuming you’re an average-sized man — who weighs roughly 190 pounds — you’d require at least 70 grams of protein per day. That equates to 411 loads per day. Good luck with that!
Fortunately, Gonzalez doesn’t think that’d be a great idea, anyway. “I wouldn’t say that semen should be considered a good source of high protein,” he explains.
That said, semen does contain a solid amount of zinc — about three percent of your daily intake. To hit your daily goal, you’d only need to swallow 33 loads. Now that’s a bit more reasonable!
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
