Saturated fats, which are rich in fat grades of cheese and meat, do not just increase the weight of men. A new study connects their consumption with a reduction in the number of sperm in the semen.
Researchers found that young Danish men who consumed the richest in fat-rich foods had a 38% lower sperm concentration than those whose diet included a small amount of fat.
Danish scientists have selected more than 700 men aged about 20 years who underwent medical examinations in connection with military service between 2008–2010.
They were asked for semen samples, after asking about the foods they had eaten during the previous three months.
For those who received less than 11.2% of the energy from saturated fat, the average sperm concentration was 50 million per ml sperm. This is compared with 45 million sperm in men who received more than 15% of their energy from saturated fats.
The World Health Organization defines any amount of more than 15 million sperm cells per ml as normal. The study found 18% of men who like to eat something fatter with a concentration of sperm below this level. The number of young people with the same problem, but not abusing saturated fats, was 13%.
Before advising men to reduce their intake of saturated fats, scientists would like to find a mechanism by which saturated fats affect sperm count, and see if the situation changes for the better when men give up on appropriate products. In any case, this is a good idea, since saturated fats are also associated with problems such as heart disease and cancer.
