Eating bacon lowers sperm quality

Well what do you know? Shocking as it may sound, eating meat isn’t good for you, and may be particularly bad for your reproductive health if you’re a man. I know what some people may be thinking: But but but aren’t macho men supposed to eat a lot of meat? Aren’t they macho because they eat meat? Vegan men are the ones who are supposed to be the sissies! This new study that has been making a lot of news can’t be right!

Of course, this study shouldn’t come as a big surprise to regular readers of this blog. According to the study, which was presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s 2013 Annual Meeting in Boston:

Overall, men who consumed more than half a portion of processed meats such as bacon each day had significantly lower levels of “normal” sperm, compared to men who ate less than half a portion of processed meats per day.

Like I’ve already said, this shouldn’t come as a big surprise to the devotees of Wild Juggling because just a few weeks ago on september 25th, I already posted a study which demonstrated a link between meat consumption and poor semen quality: Semen quality and diet. I’m sure many of my followers knew this or at least suspected this before I posted that study.

Will a lot of men consider going vegetarian or even vegan due to how meat consumption may negatively affect their reproductive health? That’s very doubtful, since most people have short attention spans and will be very cynical toward news that challenges their lifestyle. Of course, leave it to the media to cover the problems with meat-eating piecemeal. With the countless other terrible things meat consumption is associated with, sperm quality should be the least of everyone’s worries.

Are broccoli sprouts better than mature broccoli?

Just about everyone knows about the health benefits of broccoli. All vegetables wish they could be like broccoli. When it comes to cancer prevention, broccoli has no rival. This is because it contains a bunch of different nutrients with anti-carcinogenic effects, like diindolylmethane, glucoraphanin, indole-3-carbinol, and various carotenoids.

With all these health benefits, you may be wondering how it is even possible that an even more powerful form of broccoli exists.

Yet, according to this study, Broccoli sprouts: An exceptionally rich source of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens by Jed W. Fahey, Yuesheng Zhang, and Paul Talalay from http://www.pnas.org:

CONCLUSIONS

Large quantities of inducers of enzymes that protect against carcinogens can be delivered in the diet by small quantities of young crucifer sprouts (e.g., 3-day-old broccoli sprouts) that contain as much inducer activity as 10–100 times larger quantities of mature vegetables. Moreover, the inducer activity arises primarily from glucoraphanin (the glucosinolate of sulforaphane) and such sprouts contain relatively low quantities of indole glucosinolates, which are potential tumor promoters. Because little is known of the metabolism of glucosinolates in humans, we have undertaken studies (to be published separately) that demonstrate efficient conversion of glucosinolates to isothiocyanates in humans in the absence of plant myrosinase.

So if you really want to do all you can to prevent cancer, go for the broccoli sprouts. There’s nothing wrong with mature broccoli, it’s just that the sprouts are a more concentrated source of the anti-cancer chemicals. And try not to cook them too much, eat them raw if you can. Heating can destroy some of these amazing natural chemicals.