Want to be a dad? Cut out sausages and eat chicken

MEN who regularly eat sausages and bacon could be damaging their chances of becoming a father, a study suggested yesterday.

But the same research revealed that eating chicken could actually boost their fertility.

Scientists already know that a healthy diet and lifestyle can raise a woman’s chances of conceiving.

But it appears that men also need to watch what they eat if they want to start a family.

One in seven couples in Britain has trouble conceiving and, traditionally, pre-pregnancy advice has been aimed at women. However, experts now say men should also start paying attention.

The latest study, by scientists at Harvard School of Public Health in the US, suggests that the male reproductive system is highly sensitive to the type of meat a man eats. The researchers gathered data from 141 couples who had IVF at Massachusetts General Hospital between 2007 and 2014.

They monitored the food the men ate during the treatment, and found that men who consumed the most processed meat were 34 per cent less likely to father a child at each round of IVF than those who had the least.

Eating poultry, however, was linked to greater fertilisation rates, with those who ate the most chicken having a 20 per cent greater chance of fertilising their partner’s egg at each round of IVF than the men who ate the least chicken.

Because the scientists only looked at statistics and did no health or lifestyle tests, they cannot draw any firm conclusions as to cause and effect. But they suspect the levels of fat and chemicals in processed meat may be significant.

Writing in the journal Fertility and Sterility, the researchers said: ‘Meats are a major source of saturated fat, which is related to lower sperm counts among men from a fertility clinic and among young men from the general population.’

Processed meat could also carry ‘environmental chemicals’ that may affect the production of sperm, they warned. But the researchers added that men who eat more processed meat are also l ess healthy in other areas of their lives, and it may be that general lifestyle, rather than the food itself, has the greatest impact on fertility.

They added: ‘Men who consumed more meat had a higher body mass index and higher intake of alcohol, caffeine, protein, fat, total calories, and lower intake of carbohydrates.’

Italian research published in June suggested that men struggling to father a baby ate less fruit and vegetables than those who did not find it as difficult.

Because the couples in the Ameri can study could take several rounds of IVF to conceive if they needed to, in the end even those who ate the most processed meat and least chicken had as much chance of fathering a child.

But those with a better diet were more likely to be able to start a family with fewer IVF treatments. The researchers said their results may indicate a wider problem of diet for couples trying to have a baby naturally or otherwise.

Professor Rebecca Sokol, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said: ‘This study suggests that the type of meat a man consumes may influ- ence his sperm’s ability to fertilize an egg. Eating a healthy diet is an easy change to make, and worth making for reproductive health as well as overall health.’

However, fertility expert Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at Sheffield University, greeted the study with caution.

Because only 141 couples were studied, and the findings were only based on observations, he warned that it would be difficult to draw any firm conclusions.

He added: ‘I would be concerned that eating poultry is just a surrogate marker for some other aspect of a man’s life which has not been measured here.

‘That said, this is not the first time that the finger has been pointed at the possible dangers to male fertility of eating lots of processed meat. So I would urge men and couples undergoing IVF to just try to eat a healthy diet.’

‘A major source of saturated fat’