By David Liu

Sunday March 18, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Eating a fatty diet may reduce sperm quality, the total sperm count and sperm concentration, a study in the journal Human Reproduction has found.

The study led by Jill A. Attaman at Dartmouth Medical School and a Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Subspecialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and colleagues showed men eating the most fat were 43% lower total sperm count and 38% lower sperm concentration than men , compared with those who ate the least amount.

The study also found that those who ate the most saturated fat were had a 35% lower total sperm count  and a 38% lower sperm concentration, compared to those who ate the least amount.

The total sperm count is the number of spermatozoa in the ejaculate and the sperm concentration is the number of spermatozoa in each milliliter of semen.  The World Health Organisation was cited as saying that men need to be able to deliver a total of 39 million spermatozoa in the ejaculate  with the sperm concentration at least 15 million per ml to make a healthy child-bearing woman pregnant. In other words, men need to ejaculate 2.5 ml semen with normal sperm concentration to impregnate a woman.

The study involved 99 men in the United States with 71 percent obese or overweight (in the U.S., 74 percent are obese or overweight).  Based on the fat intake, all participants were placed into three groups, one group with the highest intake, one group with the lowest intake and the third one in the middle.

The researchers also found men who had the highest intake of omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in seafood, cold water fatty fish such as salmon, and plant oils, had 2 percent higher sperm count than those who had the lowest.

Saturated fat is high in fatty meat products and low in vegetable oils such as soybean oil, corn soil, canola oil, and olive oil.

Because obesity is linked to infertility, couples who do not have children as they are expected to may want to consider trying to modify their lifestyle and diet before going to see a fertility specialist.  It is not a good thing for a man, or even a woman to have excessive body weight.

Here are some suggestions from a health observer on how men can be more fertile.

1) Lose your fat if you are obese or overweight.  Men are supposed to grow muscle, not fat.  That probably explains why obesity (mostly excess fat) is linked to high risk of infertility in men;

2) Eat a healthy diet with lots of plant foods, moderate amounts of lean meat, and some nuts; Avoid sugar and animal fat;

3) If you want to boost your sexual desire and make more good semen, eat lots of fatty fish, peanuts, vitamin C and freshly crashed garlic.  Fatty fish give you omega-3 fatty acids, peanuts give you an amino acid called arginine, which is good for muscle and sperm, vitamin C and garlic give you nitric oxide, which make your blood flow easily to where it is needed.