COULD A HEALTHY DIET BOOST SPERM?

JUNK FOOD SHOWN TO CAUSE
INFERTILITY IN YOUNGER MEN

Medical News Today - Young men who consume a diet of grains, fruits, and vegetables, and avoid trans fats, are more likely to have more motile sperm in their semen, researchers reported.  A joint American and Spanish study released last month shows that Junk food, especially foods with trans fats, can make healthy young men infertile by damaging their sperm.  Fertility experts from Harvard University and the University of Murcia, in southern Spain, analyzed sperm from hundreds of men aged between 18 and 22 and found those whose diet consisted more of junk food had lower quality sperm than those with a healthier diet.  “The main overall finding of our work is that a healthy diet seems to be beneficial for semen quality,” said Audrey J. Gaskins, a doctoral candidate in Harvard School of Public Health’s department of nutrition in Boston, Gaskins’ colleagues included researchers from both the University of Rochester and the University of Murcia in Spain.

“Specifically, a healthy diet composed of a higher intake of fish, fresh fruit, whole grains, legumes and vegetables seems to improve sperm motility,” Gaskins explained, “which means a higher number of sperm actually move around, rather than sit still.”  The men were all assessed to ensure they were in good health and had no other issues that might effect their fertility and the sperm of those with “junk” diets seemed less likely to survive inside the womb so they could fertilize the egg and this was even the case if the men were at a balanced weight and took regular exercise.  Japanese scientists looking for similar traits focused more around exercise, showed that of the 215 men they studied those who took moderate exercise, even just brisk walking, had sperm with better swimming abilities than those who were less active.

Two new studies suggest that eating a healthy diet may be linked to stronger and more abundant sperm.  One study found that men who ate more red meat, processed carbs, sweets and energy drinks had reduced sperm motility, compared with men whose diets were heavier in fish, whole grains and fruits and veggies.  In the second study, researchers found that men whose diets were high in trans fats had lower sperm concentration levels than men who ate little or no trans fats.  Eating junk food is not good, but eating red meat is even worse.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

It is interesting to note that there is a significant description about the science of embryology in Vedantic literatures.  Srimad Bhagavatam, Third Canto gives a brief description of human embryology. Garbhopanishad, one of the ancient Upanishads, also serves as a brief treatise on embryology. According to Vedanta life manifests from the moment of conception. Life first enters the semen of the male and is injected into a womb of a woman. … A man’s semen contains millions of cells called sperm cells (about 107 /ml). Each sperm cell is an actively motile, free swimming and elongated cell from 60-75 µ in length. … According to vedic literatures, a spiritual particle, spiriton (soul) enters this sperm cell which then fertilizes the ovum - the female gamete - to form a single cell called zygote.

T.D. Singh, Ph.D. - Śrīla Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Mahārāja :
“Vedanta and Science” - “A Glimpse of Embryology”
Science and Scientist - Bhaktivedanta Institute Newsletter
January - March 2008 - scienceandscientist.org
http://krishnascience.info/   -   http://www.bhaktisvarupadamodara.com/
http://www.krishnascience.info/5_Hinduism_And_Science_2.html