Research confirms link between dietary patterns and sperm quality

A diet rich in fruits, vegetables and unsaturated fats shows better sperm parameters than diets based on ultra-processed foods, sugars and saturated fats

Infertility affects 17.5% of couples of reproductive age worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, infertility is a disease of the reproductive system that prevents pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Moreover, in the last 40 years, the sperm count in men, especially in industrialized countries, has declined alarmingly.

Now, a research team led by the Human Nutrition Unit of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) that studies the relationship between diet and sperm, has published a study that points out the relationship between dietary patterns and semen. The results of the research have been published in the journal Andrology.

Recent studies pointed out that the consumption of foods such as fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables, as well as nutrients such as omega 3, antioxidants and vitamins, are beneficial for sperm quality. Conversely, eating processed meats, sugary drinks and alcohol is associated with poorer semen quality. However, these relationships are controversial and are not fully scientifically proven.

In this regard, this study has examined dietary patterns as a whole rather than isolated foods or nutrients, with the aim of providing a comprehensive view of how diet may be related to semen quality. The research involved 200 healthy young men of childbearing age who were part of the international Led-Fertyl project, a cross-sectional study designed to assess dietary and lifestyle determinants and their association with key parameters of sperm quality such as sperm concentration, quantity, motility, vitality and morphology, as well as other related parameters.

The analysis focused on different healthy dietary patterns determined through various scales, such as the Mediterranean diet, the plant-based healthy diet index, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) approach, and the EAT-Lancet sustainable diet score. Follow-up of unhealthy dietary patterns, such as the plant-based unhealthy diet index or the Western diet, was also analyzed.

The results showed that a higher adherence to healthy patterns, rich in fruits, vegetables and unsaturated fats, was associated with better quality in different sperm parameters. In contrast, diets based on unhealthy patterns, characterized by high consumption of ultra-processed foods, sugars and saturated fats, were associated with lower semen quality.

“This finding represents an important advance in the understanding of the relationship between diet and semen quality and suggests that maintaining a healthy dietary pattern may be key to a lifestyle that favors reproductive health,” says the research team, which considers that these results ”could have significant implications in the development of new strategies for health promotion and prevention in this area.”

The research has been led by predoctoral researcher Estefanía Dávila-Córdova, under the direction of Nancy Babio, researcher and associate professor in the Human Nutrition Unit of the URV, and Albert Salas-Huetos, researcher and assistant professor at the URV, together with Jordi Salas-Salvadó, director of the Human Nutrition Unit of the university. The entire team is part of the Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV) and the Center for Biomedical Research Network on the Pathophysiology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn).

Bibliographical reference: Estefanía Davila-Cordova, Albert Salas-Huetos, Cristina Valle-Hita, María Fernández de la Puente, María Ángeles Martínez, Antoni Palau-Galindo, Claudia Del Egido-González, José María Manzanares-Errazu, Elena Sánchez-Resino, Jordi Salas-Salvadó, Nancy Babio. Healthy and unhealthy dietary patterns and sperm quality from the Led-Fertyl study. Andrology 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/andr.13789