Antioxidants Improve Male Fertility

Those men who ate more fruit and vegetables had better quality sperm with improved sperm count and better mobility and

What is an Antioxidant?

Oxidation happens when oxygen meets with another substance and causes it to lose electrons. The most obvious example is with an apple. If you cut an apple and leave it out to air for a couple of minutes, it turns brown. This is because the oxygen meets with the flesh of the apple and causes it to lose electrons. The same thing happens inside the human body and when you eat junk food, oxidation occurs. A by-product of this is called a free radical.

Free radicals are incomplete molecules that have lost an electron. They then try to steal an electron from nearby cells to make up for this loss and end up damaging the cells. If you were a car, this would cause rusting. In a person, it is called aging. Eating nutritionally deficient food which does not have many antioxidants, causes this aging process to happen quicker as well as contributing to health problems such as infertility and cancer.

Antioxidants are nutrients which can slow this process down or even repair damaged DNA. Some of these are vitamin C and E, beta-carotine (vitamin A), selenium and folic acid for the immune system.

By eating lots of fresh foods rich in these nutrients, you are giving your body plenty of antioxidants to fight damage. Examples include oranges, raw carrots, strawberries, raspberries and even some fortified breakfast cereals and grains.

Antioxidants in Action

To see how antioxidants work in your body, try dipping a piece of freshly chopped apple in a glass of orange juice and you will find that it stays white instead of turning brown.

If you aren't having enough fruit and vegetables and juices from them, then you are giving free radicals the opportunity to permanently damage your DNA and affect your sperm quality.

The Research

61 men were studied. Of these, 30 had fertility problems and 31 were reproductively normal. The men who were fertile, ate more fruit, vegetables, grains, folic acid and fibre than the men who had fertility problems. By contrast, those with poor seminal quality had a higher intake of protein and fats, including full fat dairy products and meat.

Dr. Jaime Mendiola, lead researcher from the University of Murcia, said "A healthy diet is not only a good way of avoiding illness, but could also have an impact on improving seminal quality."

Source: Jaime Mendiola, Alberto M. Torres-Cantero, Jesús Vioque, José M. Moreno-Grau, Jorge Ten, Manuela Roca, Stella Moreno-Grau, y Rafael Bernabeu. "A low intake of antioxidant nutrients is associated with poor semen quality in patients attending fertility clinics". Fertility and Sterility 2009, published on line, May 2009.