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Healthy diet makes better sperm

Posted by: Santa Monica Fertility   •   Categories: Male Fertility, Trying to Conceive,

FoodConsumer.org

By  Jimmy Downs,  Oct. 9, 2012

 

Eating a healthy diet improves the mobility of sperm in young men, according to a study recently released in Human Reproduction.

A.J. Gaskins at Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA and colleagues conducted the study and found men in the highest quartile of intake of a Prudent diet had 11.3 percent higher percentage of progressively motile sperm, compared with men in the lowest quartile.

The Rochester Young Men’s Study conducted between 2009 and 2010 at the University of Rochester involved 188 young men aged 18 to 22 years. Dietary information was gathered through a food frequency questionnaire and dietary patterns were determined by factor analysis.

 

Then researchers tried to associate two dietary patterns with semen quality parameters including sperm concentration, progressive motility and morphology after adjustment for abstinence time, use of multivitamins, race, smoking, body mass index, recruitment period, exercise and total calorie intake.

Factor analysis resulted in two dietary patterns, Western pattern, which was featured with high intake of red and processed meat, refined grains ,pizza, snacks, energy drinks and sweets and the “Prudent” pattern which was characterized by high intake of fish, fruit, vegetables, chicken, legumes and while grains. The Prudent pattern looks like a Mediterranean diet.

Increased intake of the Prudent pattern was found associated with improved sperm mobility. And the Prudent pattern was not associated with sperm concentration and morphology.

The Western pattern was not linked to any semen parameter.

The researchers concluded “Our findings support the suggestion that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, chicken, fish and whole grains may be an inexpensive and safe way to improve at least one measure of semen quality.”

 

Read original article here.

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