Nuts may boost male fertility, study shows
PARIS: Eating nuts “significantly” boosted the number and health of sperm in young men in a scientific trial, researchers said.
The findings “support a beneficial role for chronic nut consumption in sperm quality”, they said yesterday, but stressed that the study participants were all healthy and apparently fertile men.
The potential benefits of nuts for men struggling with fertility have yet to be probed.
For the study, researchers recruited 119 men aged 18 to 35, whom they divided into two groups.
One group ate 60g of almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts daily on top of their usual “westernstyle” diet, while the second group got no nuts.
After 14 weeks, the nut group “had significant improvements in their sperm count, vitality, motility (movement) and morphology (shape)” – all associated with male fertility, said a statement.
“Moreover, the subjects in the nut group also showed a significant reduction in their levels of sperm DNA fragmentation, a parameter closely associated with male infertility.”
The results were consistent with sperm improvement observed in other studies that looked at diets rich in omega3, antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, selenium, zinc and folate.
Nuts are rich in many of these nutrients.
The study results were presented at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona. — AFP