It's all ABOUT YOU!
Friday 5 April 2013
High fat, low sperm
Here’s another reason men should pay closer attention to their diet - the more saturated fat you consume, the greater the chance that your sperm count is sub-par.
Researchers in Denmark looked at the sperm counts of 701 young men receiving medical check-ups for the military and also asked them about their diets.
They found that the recruits who consumed 11.2 per cent or fewer calories from saturated fat had an average sperm concentration of 50 million per millilitre of semen and a total sperm count of about 163 million.
Those who obtained more than 15 per cent of their calories from saturated fats had an average sperm concentration of 45 million per millilitre and an overall count of 128 million.
The researchers, from Copenhagen’s Rigs Hospitalet, noted that earlier studies examining a link between saturated fats and declining sperm counts had involved older, married men with fertility problems.
This study suggested that the sperm counts of young men with no apparent fertility concerns were also affected by the saturated fats in their diets.
Research team leader Tina Jensen noted that both the quality and quantity of sperm appears to be in decline in western countries; some studies have shown that average counts have dropped by more than half over the past 60 years.
The study was reported in the February 2013 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Sources: Tina K Jensen, et al “High dietary intake of saturated fat is associated with reduced semen quality among 701 young Danish men from the general population”, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2013 ajcn.042432; DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.112.042432
Berry good advice
Only three weekly servings of blueberries or strawberries can help cut the risk of heart attack by as much as one-third.
This extraordinary finding follows a survey obtained from 93,600 women from ages 25-43 who enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II. This survey followed these women over a period of 18 years and followed their diet every four years.
The data was analysed by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the UK’s University of East Anglia.
Amazingly, the women who reported eating the most berries had a 32 per cent lower (risk) than those who only ate blueberries or strawberries only once a month or less, even though their diets might have been rich in other fruits and vegetables.
The berries may have made the difference because of the anthocyanins they contain - the investigators said that these naturally occurring compounds may help dilate arteries, counter the build up of plaque and provide other cardiovascular benefits.
The berries’ positive effects were apparently independent of other heart attack risk factors, such as age, high blood pressure, family history of heart attack, body mass, exercise, smoking, caffeine or alcohol intake.
The study was published in the January 15, 2013 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Sources: Eric B. Rimm, Aedín Cassidy et al. “High Anthocyanin Intake Is Associated With a Reduced Risk of Myocardial Infarction in Young and Middle-Aged Women,” Circulation. 2013; 127:188-196, doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.122408