Incorrect diet and junk food undermine male fertility

ROME - Eating well protects male fertility from a young age: young adults who follow a balanced diet have 68 million more sperm per ejaculate than peers who eat junk food (from snacks to industrial food, desserts, pizza, drinks etc). Extensive research just published in Jama Urology suggests this. "This is the largest study ever conducted that examined dietary style in correlation with the testicular function of the males involved," says author Feiby Nassan, of Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

Probably due to multiple environmental factors (the Western diet has been repeatedly called into question) the quality of the sperm continues to drop: the sperm concentration decreased by 60% between 1973 and 2011; in addition, a decreasing trend is also observed for the concentration of testosterone, the male sex hormone.

A man who has 39 million sperm per ejaculate (or less than 15 million per milliliter of semen) has a low sperm concentration, which not only negatively impacts the ability to have children, but also clearly reflects his general health.

2,935 19-year-olds were involved in the study. The sample was divided into 4 groups according to their feeding behavior. It emerged that those who ate healthy (lots of fruit and vegetables, fish, whole grains) had 68 million more sperm per ejaculate, compared to those who followed a purely western and low nutritious diet; vegetarians had 33 million more sperm per ejaculate than poorly fed peers.

"Fertility is not an important parameter just for having children" - underlines Nassan - but it is also linked to the state of health and life expectancy of males ". This study, he concludes, reaffirms the impact of nutrition on male fertility . (ANSA).