Burger meal
A report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has revealed that saturated fats like those found in rich cheeses and meats, may do more than weigh men down after a meal. The study also links them to dwindling sperm counts.
The report found that young men who ate the most saturated fats had a
38 percent lower concentration of sperm, and 41 percent lower sperm
counts in their semen, than those who ate the least fat.
The study’s lead author Tina Jensen said “we cannot say that it has a
causal effect, but I think other studies have shown that saturated fat
intake has shown a connection to other problems and now also for sperm
count.
The research is not the first to connect diet and other lifestyle
factors to sperm production and quality. In 2011, Brazilian researchers
found that eating more grains - such as wheat, oats or barley was
associated with improved sperm concentration and mobility, and fruit was
also linked to a speed and agility boost in sperm.
But that study and most others looked at these associations using data
on men seeking fertility treatments, which may not be representative of
all men. For their study, Jensen and her colleagues surveyed and
examined 701 young men who were about 20 years old and getting checkups
for the military between 2008 and 2010.
They were asked about the food they ate over the prior three months,
and then asked for a semen sample. The researchers then broke the
results into four groups, depending on how much of the men’s energy
intake came from saturated fats, and compared how much sperm the men in
each group produced.
The men who got less than 11.2 percent of their energy from saturated
fats had an average sperm concentration of 50 million per milliliter of
semen and a total sperm count of about 163 million.
That compared to 45 million sperm per milliliter of semen and a 128
million count in men who got more than 15 percent of their energy from
saturated fats.
The World Health Organization defines anything over 15 million sperm
per milliliter of semen as normal. In the study, 13 percent of men in
the lowest-fat group and 18 percent of men in the highest-fat group fell
below that level.
Although the study cannot determine whether other lifestyle factors
might account for the link, Jensen said her team’s findings may
partially explain studies that have found sperm counts decreasing around
the world.
“I think obesity is another cause, but (saturated fats) could also be a possible explanation,” Jensen said.
She said that the next step is to find the mechanism by which saturated fat could influence sperm count, and then to see whether sperm counts improve when men cut down on saturated fat in their diets.
Agency Introduces New Rules for Food Safety
The Food and Drug Administration says its new guidelines would make the food Americans eat safer and help prevent the kinds of food-borne disease outbreaks that sicken or kill thousands of consumers each year.
She said that the next step is to find the mechanism by which saturated fat could influence sperm count, and then to see whether sperm counts improve when men cut down on saturated fat in their diets.
Agency Introduces New Rules for Food Safety
The Food and Drug Administration says its new guidelines would make the food Americans eat safer and help prevent the kinds of food-borne disease outbreaks that sicken or kill thousands of consumers each year.
The rules, the most sweeping food safety guidelines in decades, would
require farmers to take new precautions against contamination, to
include making sure workers’ hands are washed, irrigation water is
clean, and that animals stay out of fields. Food manufacturers will have
to submit food safety plans to the government to show they are keeping
their operations clean.
The long-overdue regulations could cost businesses close to half a
billion dollars a year to implement, but are expected to reduce the
estimated 3,000 deaths a year from food-borne illness. The new
guidelines were announced Friday.
Just since last summer, outbreaks of listeria in cheese and salmonella
in peanut butter, mangoes and cantaloupe have been linked to more than
400 illnesses and as many as seven deaths, according to the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The actual number of those
sickened is likely much higher.
Many responsible food companies and farmers are already following the
steps that the FDA would now require them to take. But officials say the
requirements could have saved lives and prevented illnesses in several
of the large-scale outbreaks that have hit the country in recent years.
In a 2011 outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe that claimed 33 lives, for
example, FDA inspectors found pools of dirty water on the floor and
old, dirty processing equipment at Jensen Farms in Colorado where the
cantaloupes were grown.
In a peanut butter outbreak this year linked to 42 salmonella
illnesses, inspectors found samples of salmonella throughout Sunland
Inc.’s peanut processing plant in New Mexico and multiple obvious safety
problems, such as birds flying over uncovered trailers of peanuts and
employees not washing their hands.
Under the new rules, companies would have to lay out plans for
preventing those sorts of problems, monitor their own progress and
explain to the FDA how they would correct them. “The rules go very
directly to preventing the types of outbreaks we have seen,” said
Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods.
The FDA estimates the new rules could prevent almost two million
illnesses annually, but it could be several years before the rules are
actually preventing outbreaks. Taylor said it could take the agency
another year to craft the rules after a four-month comment period, and
farms would have at least two years to comply, meaning the farm rules
are at least three years away from taking effect. Smaller farms would
have even longer to comply.
The produce rule would mark the first time the FDA has had real
authority to regulate food on farms. In an effort to stave off protests
from farmers, the farm rules are tailored to apply only to certain
fruits and vegetables that pose the greatest risk, like berries, melons,
leafy greens and other foods that are usually eaten raw. A farm that
produces green beans that will be canned and cooked, for example, would
not be regulated.
Such flexibility, along with the growing realization that outbreaks are
bad for business, has brought the produce industry and much of the rest
of the food industry on board as Congress and FDA has worked to make
food safer.
In a statement Friday, Pamela Bailey, president of the Grocery
Manufacturers Association, which represents the country’s biggest food
companies, said the food safety law “can serve as a role model for what
can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together to
achieve a common goal.”
The new rules could cost large farms $30,000 a year, according to the
FDA. The agency did not break down the costs for individual processing
plants, but said the rules could cost manufacturers up to $475 million
annually.
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