
Men's fertility irreversibly damaged by age of 18 thanks Western junk food diet - smn1234
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/24/mens-fertility-irreversibly-damaged-age-18-thanks-western-junk/
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username444
No link to the actual study. I need to know if they controlled for body fat
and lifestyle.

It's well established that high body fat percentage is correlated with lower
sex hormone production. Among other factors, this could be due to decreased
bloodflow to the genitals.

It's not unreasonable to think maybe the people eating the junk food were
simply fatter.

Another concern is whether they're getting adequate nutrients from other
foods. There's a bit of substitution going on when a higher percentage of
calories coming from junk food, but it's completely possible to eat McDonald's
for lunch every day and still get 100% of your recommended vitamins, minerals
and fiber from other meals.

This is just poor reporting.

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smarx007
See
[https://www.eshre.eu/ESHRE2019/Programme/Searchable#!abstrac...](https://www.eshre.eu/ESHRE2019/Programme/Searchable#!abstractdetails/0000574200)

~~~
username444
Thanks!

> diet, semen quality, reproductive hormones, and lifestyle factors

So it doesn't look like body fat or weight was factored in, unless they were
lumped under "lifestyle factors" for some reason.

It should also be noted that they're confounding "Western" and "high fat".
High fat diets are actually great for hormone production:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4271636/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4271636/)

~~~
tracker1
Western diets are also high sugar. The fat isn't particularly high compared to
say Paleo or other ancestral approaches. Though the quality/types/processing
of the fats is pretty unnatural in a typical western diet.

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hashberry
Since it gated, here are the diet+sperm quality results:

 _From the responses to a dietary questionnaire, four types of diet were
identified: a “Western” diet characterised by red meat, processed meat, fatty
and sugary food and drink; a “prudent” diet comprising mainly chicken, fish,
vegetables and fruit; a “Smørrebrød” diet cold processed meats, whole grains,
mayonnaise, cold fish, condiments, and dairy; and a traditional vegetarian
diet, involving lots of vegetables, soya milk and eggs._

 _Sperm health, as measured by concentration, volume and motility, was best in
those following the prudent diet, followed by the vegetarian and then
Smørrebrød diets, with those adhering to a western diet yielding the worse
readings._

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newswriter99
And yet lower income groups, who tend to have junk food diets, also tend to
have more unplanned pregnancies.

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ticviking
I suspect that is caused by a higher rate of unprotected sex.

~~~
xwdv
Can a higher rate of sex make up for devastatingly low fertility?

~~~
boomlinde
Can’t read the full article, but I assume that the result of the western diet
isn’t necessarily ”devastatingly low” ferility, just lower than other diet
groups.

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benatkin
Snopes might need to update this article from _False_ to _Mostly True_ :
[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dont-overdew-
it/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dont-overdew-it/)

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gnusty_gnurc
Oh look, another nutrition research study...

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gingabriska
And now it's established.

I guess if a group wants to reduce population of developing countries, they
can develop ultra cheap fast food, fast food subsidies and fast influencers
who manipulate a large part of population into eating fast food and we save
the planet? Just food for thoughts. Fast food VCs rescue planet from
overpopulation.

Developed countries are already shrinking in population, that's why I
specifically talk about developing countries.

~~~
devonkim
We already know within the US that it doesn’t work though - the poorest with
the worst diets (not on subsistence farming here, key point) have the most
unplanned pregnancies which lead to lack of economic advancement in our
current incentive structure.

The Gates Foundation is funding more education which tends to lead toward
women and men setting career goals, potentially relocating, and thereby
delaying childbearing to a later time. The primary exceptions here in
developed countries are pretty much entirely religious (see: Duggars, most of
Utah...).

Commercially produced fast food is also more expensive than cooking at home in
developing countries because their marginal utility of labor is so low (much
cheaper to cook at home and spend the time than to go work those hours
instead). Government subsidies to make fast food nearly free don’t work that
well when much of the population has no access to it either. This situation is
somewhat inverted from America’s problem (healthier city dwellers that walk
with fewer children, unhealthy rural population dependent upon cars that
reproduce far more).

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natrik
Outline/Mirror: [https://outline.com/sAfBVT](https://outline.com/sAfBVT)

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abstractbarista
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on the individual's inclination
to have kids, or perspective on world population growth. Could it mean less
accidental kids?

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malvosenior
Losing your ability to reproduce without consent is _definitely_ a bad thing.
For others, there's already birth control and vasectomies.

~~~
abstractbarista
For a while now I've wanted to save some sperm and get snipped. Seems like the
best of both worlds - save your young HQ code while not worrying about
accidental pregnancy!

Nobody is forcing people to eat fast food all the time. They are consenting by
choosing it.

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Retra
Consenting to eating fast food is not the same as consenting to the second-
order effects which you are unaware. That's not how consent works.

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arpa
Could we please have a link without paywall, or, even better - original study
link please?

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ohaal
Cached version of article
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%3...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2019%2F06%2F24%2Fmens-
fertility-irreversibly-damaged-age-18-thanks-western-junk%2F)

~~~
arpa
thank you!

