The title of this blog may be a bit misleading. No, the beef you serve your husband for dinner won’t lower his sperm count. However, if his mother ate beef every night, it may be a cause of his lower than normal sperm count.
A new study shows that women who eat a lot of beef during their pregnancies can have sons with a lower sperm count. The study was conducted by the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. The study looked at about 400 men born between 1949 and 1983.
The study examined the diet and lifestyle of the men in the study as well as the diets of their mothers at the time of pregnancy. Mothers were given questionnaires about their dietary habits during the pregnancy. Of the men that had mothers who ate beef seven times a week, the sperm count was 24% lower than sons of mothers who ate little beef. Seventeen percent of the sons with mothers who ate beef more than seven times each week had a sperm count that was considered to be in the subfertile range.
One theory is that the hormones given to cows may be the culprit. Although the beef industry and the FDA insist that feeding hormones to cattle is safe for humans, the jury is still out. Developing fetuses may be more susceptible to the hormones than a grown person or even a child, since they are so small and still developing. Body weight may be a factor.
Not surprisingly the beef industry is fighting back and attempting to discredit the study. They continue to insist that eating beef every day is completely safe and that bovine growth hormones have no effect on humans. This may be true, or it may be like the cigarette companies telling people for generations that smoking wasn’t bad for the health and even had some benefits. More studies will have to be done to determine if there is a link.
It should be noted that the men in the study were all expectant fathers, so they were not completely infertile. However, many of these pregnancies took longer to achieve than the average of six months to one year. The researchers aren’t telling women to stop eating beef entirely, but suggest that more research is needed to determine if there is a definitive link.
There’s probably not much that can be done for this generation of men. However, we may be able to help the next generation. You don’t have to give up beef completely. If you love beef and eat it most nights, consider hormone free beef products. Organic beef comes from cows that aren’t fed hormones. This is beneficial for many reasons, not only the future fertility of our sons and grandsons.
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