• Effects of foods and nutrients in male fertility: a review study
  • Farshid Davoodi,1,* Soroush Afshar,2 Nima Nezhadi,3
    1. Student of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
    2. Student of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
    3. Student of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran


  • Introduction: Recently infertility has become a common health issue and a significant clinical complication. Twenty five percent of cases of infertility are relevant to male reproductive problems comprising reduced semen quality. According to the incidence of male factor infertility, there has been increasing interest in the effects of diet, and food on reproductive potential. Recent studies indicate that semen quality over the past several decades has been decreased in different countries and also the reason for this reduction is unknown. Human and animal studies confirm that male obesity and some components of the diet may play a vital role in regulating spermatogenesis, sperm maturation, and fertilizing ability. Testicular physiology is sensitive to alterations of body metabolism and high energy diets can damage testicular metabolism
  • Methods: This review uses keywords related to infertility, fertility, nutrition, diet search to obtain results in articles published in Iranian and foreign prestigious journals in SID, Magiran, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Elsevier databases. Time interval 2016 up to 2019 was performed. Nutrition guides were also used for infertile people at reputable nutrition and college sites.
  • Results: Several types of research conducted in large samples of individuals have examined the associations between diet and semen quality with different results. Seven studies have shown a positive relationship between higher intake of processed meat and sweets and increasing the risk of low sperm quality. A recent review of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) evaluating the effects of specific nutrients and nutritional supplements on male infertility conducted by Giahi et al., 2016 showed that oral complexes of selenium; selenium plus vitamin A; vitamin C; vitamin E; L-carnitine plus L-acetylcarnitine; beta-carotene, alphatocopherol and arachidonic acid; coenzyme Q10; clomiphene citrate plus vitamin E; eicoseptanoic plus docohexanoid acid; and ubiquinol were used in an attempt to improve such classical sperm quality parameters as sperm concentration, motility and morphology or sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF). According to previous studies high intake of coffee and alcohol, high consumption of sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages, high intake of total fat, saturated fatty acids and trans-fat, high intake of total proteins through processed meat, and processed red meat, high consumption of soy foods, high consumption of potatoes, high consumption of cheese, full-fat dairy, and total dairy products and also low consumption of poultry, low intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids PUFAs (specially omega-3) mainly through fish, shellfish and seafood, low intake of dietary fiber mainly through cereals, low consumption of vegetables and fruits, low intake of antioxidants (vitamin E and C, β- carotene, selenium, zinc, cryptoxanthin, lycopene, vitamin D) and folate, low consumption of low-fat dairy products, and skimmed milk all lead to male infertility, abnormal sperm parameters or hormone levels.
  • Conclusion: We conclude that the topic of nutrition in fertility is crucial, and there is a lot of research to prove it, but these studies are not enough, and further studies need to be done.
  • Keywords: Nutrition, fertility, men