Dietary patterns and semen quality in young men

Abstract

what is known already: Over the past decades there has been evidence of a concomitant decline in sperm and diet quality. Yet whether diet composition influences semen quality remains largely unexplored. participants, setting, methods: Men aged 18-22 years were included in this analysis. Diet was assessed via food frequency questionnaire and dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis. Linear regression was used to analyze the relation between diet patterns and conventional semen quality parameters (sperm concentration, progressive motility and morphology) adjusting for abstinence time, multivitamin use, race, smoking status, BMI, recruitment period, moderate-to-intense exercise and total calorie intake.results: Two dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis. The 'Western' pattern was characterized by high intake of red and processed meat, refined grains, pizza, snacks, high-energy drinks and sweets. The 'Prudent' pattern was characterized by high intake of fish, chicken, fruit, vegetables, legumes and whole grains. The Prudent pattern was positively associated with percent progressively motile sperm in multivariate models (P-trend ¼ 0.04). Men in the highest quartile of the Prudent diet had 11.3% (95% CI 1.3, 21.3) higher % progressively motile sperm compared with men in the lowest quartile. The Prudent pattern was unrelated to sperm concentration and morphology. The Western pattern was not associated with any semen parameter.limitations: This was a cross-sectional and observational study, which limited our ability to determine causality of diet on semen quality parameters.wider implications of the findings: 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.

High‐energy diets: a threat for male fertility?

“…Interestingly, Gaskins and collaborators did not report major alterations in sperm parameters of men consuming HED, which somehow contradicts the observations by other authors. The homogeneity of the study population (young healthy, college men) is a great contributor to unaltered sperm parameters.…”

“…A few human studies have provided evidence that consumption of HED impairs semen quality, namely sperm concentration, motility and morphology (7)(8)(9)(10)18). Nevertheless, others reported no correlation between impaired sperm quality and the dietary pattern based on HED (19). A limitation of human studies is the correlative aspect of data established, without taking into account confounding lifestyle factors that make definitive conclusions difficult.…”

Dietary folate intake and modification of the association of urinary bisphenol A concentrations with in vitro fertilization outcomes among women from a fertility clinic

“…Total folate intake (Supplemental Table 1) was calculated using dietary folate equivalents (DFE) to account for differences in absorption between natural and synthetic folate [50]. From this questionnaire we also estimated dietary pattern adherence scores [51]. Folate intake with this questionnaire has been validated against prospectively collected diet records (r=0.71) [48] and against red blood cell (r=0.51) [52] and plasma folate levels (r=0.63) [53].…”

Physical activity and television watching in relation to semen quality in young men

“…Diet was assessed using a validated questionnaire 35. Diet quality was summarised by two previously described dietary patterns:36 a Prudent pattern (characterised by high intakes of fish, chicken, fruit, cruciferous vegetables, tomatoes, leafy green vegetables, legumes and whole grains) and Western pattern (characterised by high intakes of red and processed meat, butter, high-fat dairy, refined grains, pizza, snacks, high-energy drinks, mayonnaise and sweets). All covariates were 100% complete.…”