We all know that junk food is one of the unhealthiest foods of all times. Junk food is known to add obesity and other health disorders.
But one recent study has concluded that men eating lots of junk food have found to be having low sperm count when compared to people who eat fresh foods. This study has been conducted by Harvard University by a team of US and Danish researchers. The study has concluded that people who consume more of the western diet are prone to have low sperm count.
A western diet can be defined as consumption of a higher amount of red meat, pre-packaged foods, fried food, high-fat dairy, and high sugar. This is also known as the Standard American diet (SAD).
We all know that sperm is extremely important when it comes to the production of offspring and sperm count plays a pivotal role in the reproductive cycle. A man is considered to have a low sperm count if he has 15 million sperms per milliliter or less than 39 million sperms per ejaculation. A low sperm count is a major determinant of if you can get your partner pregnant or not. If a man is completely on a western diet then he will ejaculate 25.6 million sperms which are fewer than men who are on a natural diet.
The research has also concluded that people who are at their reproductive peak will have much lesser sperm count making it more difficult to get conceived.
Lower sperm count is quite common in western countries especially when people are on a western diet. The study conducted used samples of around 3000 men with an average age group of 19. These men were divided into four basic categories based on their diet pattern.
Fertility expert Professor Allan Pacey of Sheffield University said
“It’s almost certain that this is down to an effect that those with the better diets are taking in more antioxidants. With pizza, chips and red meat we know that the antioxidant stress goes up and that is bad for sperm.”
In India also binge eating habits have become extremely popular and thus the natural reproductive cycle is disturbed like anything.