Research
Energy balance
Obesity and high-fat diets impair male fertility by increasing oxidative stress, reducing sperm concentration, motility, and DNA integrity, while moderate exercise and healthy diets (e.g., Mediterranean) can improve these parameters.
Maintaining a healthy weight through a balanced diet (like the Mediterranean diet) and regular moderate exercise can improve sperm quality by reducing oxidative stress. Avoid high-fat diets and sedentary behavior.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Recent evidences from both animal and human studies indicate that high fat diets result in impaired reproduction, by affecting molecular and physical structure of sperm as well as the health of the developing fetus and subsequent offspring
Why this rating
The paper cites animal and human studies, but notes that observational studies prove associations, not causations, and RCTs are needed.
Source
Lifestyle and fertility: the influence of stress and quality of life on male fertility
Alessandro Ilacqua et al. · Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology · 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12958-018-0436-9
narrative_reviewCited 308×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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