Junk Food Can Lower Sperm Count In Young Men, Harvard Study Finds

By Susan Scutti, CNN (CNN) — Burgers, fries, pizza and high energy drinks impact testicular function in young men, new research suggests. Specifically, the sperm counts for men who typically eat “Western” meals of high fat foods were 25.6 million lower, on average, than the counts of men noshing on fish, chicken, fruits, vegetables and other more “prudent” foods, a new Harvard study found. Sperm is the male reproductive cell. A man is considered to have a low sperm count if he has fewer than 15 million sperm per milliliter or less than 39 million sperm per ejaculation. A low sperm count can negatively impact a man’s ability to get a partner pregnant. Declining sperm counts in Western nations “Sperm count has been declining in the Western countries over the past few decades,” wrote the researchers in a presentation of their results at the 2019 annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Vienna on Tuesday. By one recent calculation, sperm counts of men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand have plunged 59% over a nearly 40-year period ending in 2011. Plummeting counts have coincided with poorer diet quality. How, if at all, do typical diets chosen by northern European men influence testicular function? To find out, the researchers studied the menus and semen quality of nearly 3,000 healthy young Danish men who underwent a compulsory military-readiness medical exam between 2008...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Boston News Health CNN Harvard Source Type: news