Fit Fare

A recent MSNBC article about a medical study has come along with some earth-shattering news to save the world, improve our health and that of our sperm.  Well not mine, or any other woman’s, since we do not actually have any, but you get my drift.

The study, reported at the reputable American Society for Reproductive Medicine, claims that fruits and vegetables may improve male fertility.  The article says that the researchers found that “overall, men who ate the fewest fruits and veggies had the lowest sperm motility.”

Results showed that 83 percent of the infertile men had a low intake of fruits and veggies, defined as fewer than five servings a day, compared with 40 percent of the fertile men.

Well, that’s just crazy.  Next they’re going to say that regular exercise may improve your overall health or that smoking has been linked with lung cancer!

Clearly, I already firmly believe that eating fruits and vegetables is good for you in general.  That this would affect a core part of our reproductive system is unsurprising to me.  But there is another thing to consider:  these 83% who ate fewer fruits and vegetables… what were they eating instead?  More meat perhaps?  or junk food?  an all Jello diet??  (OK, I must admit I thought I was making the jello diet thing up, but googled it and lo and behold!  Even John Malkovich is doing it!  I wonder how his sperm count is looking these days?)

Anyway, back to the article.  The report did have something a bit more specific to say about their findings.  Specifically, it was the brightly colored produce such as leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers and oranges, that are high in anti-oxidants, which were associated with strong, healthy sperm.

“We think that sperm quality is affected by dietary antioxidant intake,” said study author Dr. Vivian Lewis, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.

Again, that seems completely reasonable and, really, quite intuitive.  I mean, is this really news worthy?  Well, it is MSNBC, and seeing as that this article was the other treasure I found, and, I admit, was momentarily enthralled by, perhaps the fruit and veggie sperm-saviours article is quite reasonable.

It is unfortunate, though not all that surprising, that an article citing that fruit and vegetables are good for us is news.  However, given that we do live in an age where vitamins and  antioxidants have been processed out of a lot of our foods, this type of news may in fact be completely called for.  And while it seems apparent to me that how healthfully we eat should influence our reproductive health, it is not all that surprising that people tend not to make the connection that our sperm or ova should equally affected by our diets.

Not to dismiss this report completely (I know, I know, I sound like I did, but really I was dismissing the article written about it), my good friend and practicing OB/GYN thought that this report, while not necessarily news-worthy, is a solid preliminary report for a longer study that would include more randomized testing and look at other factors associated with the foods that these test subjects are consuming.