Diet for a healthy dad-to-be

As a dad-to-be, does what I eat and drink matter?

What you eat may have an impact on the quality of your sperm. So it makes sense that your food choices could play a significant part in your ability to conceive.

About one man in every 20 is affected by decreased fertility (subfertility). This means it will take longer than usual for you to make a baby (Anderson 2010).

When it comes to fertility problems it's estimated that:

• 30 per cent can be traced to men
• 29 per cent are attributed to women
• 10 per cent are a combination of the two
• five per cent are due to other factors
• 24 per cent are unexplained (Anderson et al 2010, HFEA 2010, 2011, Rubenstein 2011)

If you do have a fertility problem, diet may be one of the factors which could help to remedy it. If you have poor eating habits and drink heavily, this may lower the quality and quantity of your sperm.

Though there's not a lot of research into how diet improves your fertility, eating well for your health is important. A balanced diet as part of a healthy lifestyle may be one of the factors that helps the condition of your sperm. This may in turn boost your baby-making chances (Anderson et al 2010, Homan et al 2007, NHS 2011a).

What's a healthy diet for a dad-to-be?

Your diet should be every bit as balanced, varied and nutritious as a mum-to-be's diet. Eat a wide variety of foods from all the food groups, which means:

• plenty of wholegrain, starchy foods (carbohydrates)
• some protein (lean meat, fish and pulses)
• some low-fat dairy produce (such as semi-skimmed milk and yoghurt)
• plenty of fruit and vegetables

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating Opens a new window is a useful visual guide to the proportion of each food group that should make up your daily diet. Following these guidelines will ensure your diet includes nutrients which may help to improve your fertility (Blomberg Jensen et al 2011, Ebisch et al 2007, Eskenazi et al 2005, NHS 2011a, Rubenstein 2011, Showell et al 2010, Young et al 2008).

Which nutrients might improve my fertility?

Some vitamins and minerals may play a part in helping conception. But there isn't a lot of strong evidence for this. The best way to get these nutrients is from your diet.

Zinc and selenium
Both zinc and selenium play an important role in conceiving. Low levels of zinc and selenium have been linked to poor sperm quality and a reduction in the sperm's ability to move (motility) (Safarinejad 2009, Yuyan et al 2008).

Selenium supplements may improve the quality of your sperm and increase your chance of pregnancy (NCCWCH 2013), but experts are unsure about how much the dose should be (Mistry et al 2011).

Food sources of zinc include extra-lean minced beef, baked beans and dark chicken meat. And selenium can be found in brazil nuts, bread, fish, meat and eggs.

Vitamin D
One study has shown a possible link between vitamin D levels and how mobile your sperm is. The study showed that men who were deficient in vitamin D had less mobile sperm (Blomberg Jensen et al 2011). But more research is needed.

Our bodies make vitamin D in response to sunlight. We also get it through eating foods containing vitamin D. Oily fish, and foods fortified with vitamin D such as margarine, and some breakfast cereals, contain vitamin D.

Folate
Folate (vitamin B9), is important for men to make healthy sperm and is the naturally occurring form of folic acid (Young et al 2008). There's a small amount of evidence linking a diet rich in this vitamin to higher sperm counts (Vujkovic et al 2009). You don't need to take a folic acid supplement as a dad-to-be, but it won't do you any harm to eat plenty of folate-rich foods.

Folate-rich foods include green vegetables such as broccoli, spinach and sprouts. Folate can also be found in pulses, potatoes and oranges. So a jacket potato with baked beans or homemade spinach dal is a good way of incorporating folate into your diet. Many breakfast cereals are also fortified with folic acid.

Antioxidants
Antioxidants may improve the quality of your sperm by decreasing the number of free radicals that can cause cell membrane damage (Anderson et al 2010, Eskenazi et al 2005). In some studies, men who ate a diet low in antioxidants were more likely to have poor-quality sperm (Mendiola et al 2010).

Antioxidant vitamins include vitamins C and E and betacarotene, a form of vitamin A. Eating a wide range of fruit and vegetables will give you plenty of antioxidants. Make it easy by keeping a bag of apples in the fridge at work or a bunch of grapes on your desk.

There's even some evidence that if you're taking longer than the usual time to conceive you may benefit from antioxidant vitamin supplements (Showell et al 2011). This may increase your chances of making a baby and of your partner carrying the pregnancy to term.

However, there needs to be more research in the area of male fertility and supplements for us to be sure.

Does my weight affect my fertility?

Maintaining a healthy weight is essential for keeping your sperm in good condition (NCCWCH 2013, NHS 2011). You can do this by having a healthy, balanced diet and exercising regularly.

Being overweight can affect your ability to conceive a child (Anderson 2010) and can influence the quality of your sperm. This effect is greatest in men who have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, but a BMI of over 25 can also result in a higher risk of poor sperm (NCCWCH 2013).

Weight loss has been shown to improve the quality of sperm in men with a BMI greater than 30 (Hakonsen et al 2011). So if you are carrying a lot of extra weight and your sperm quality is poor, it is worth a try.

Should I cut down on caffeine if we're trying to conceive?

It's fine to keep drinking coffee and tea. There's no strong evidence that caffeine can harm your fertility as a dad-to-be unless you also smoke (NCCWCH 2013).

A study looking at couples who were undergoing IVF treatment showed that drinking caffeine as a dad-to-be didn't have an effect on how well the IVF worked (Klonoff Cohen 2005).

Caffeine may even improve sperm motility. Studies of fertile and infertile men showed those who drank large amounts of caffeine regularly had significantly higher sperm motility than those who didn't (Pasqualotto et al 2005, Sobreiro et al 2005). We need more research into any direct effect on fertility, though.

Will alcohol affect my fertility?

It's best to cut back on alcohol if you drink regularly, if you want to improve your baby-making chances.

There is no evidence to suggest that moderate drinking (up to three to four units of alcohol per day) will affect your fertility (CKS 2007a, Homan et al 2007, NCCWCH 2013). But it's easy to underestimate how much you're drinking.

Experts agree that drinking excessively will impair the quality of your sperm (CKS 2007a, NCCWCH 2013).

Heavy consumption of alcohol affects your hormone levels, in particular your testosterone levels. It also affects the ability of your testes to mature the sperm properly. This leads to poor semen quality but the effect is reversible (NCCWCH 2013), so if you cut down on alcohol over several months your semen quality could improve.

If you commit yourself to a few months of clean living and healthy eating, and a safe (though slightly tamer) lifestyle, you'll be in top shape to father a child.

Find out how other elements of your lifestyle can affect your fertility.