Rates of obesity and type-2 diabetes have increased over the past 50 years while sperm quality has declined. A controlled human study found that men eating an ultra-processed diet gained more body fat than men eating a minimally processed diet despite consuming the same number of calories. The ultra-processed diet lowered testosterone and shifted hormone levels in worrying ways. The diet also introduced higher levels of pollutants known to impair sperm quality. Researchers concluded that the processing of foods, rather than excess calorie intake, drives these harmful metabolic and reproductive effects.
Over the past 50 years, rates of obesity and type-2 diabetes have soared, while sperm quality has plummeted. Driving these changes could be the increasing popularity of ultra-processed foods, which have been linked to a range of poor health outcomes. However, scientists still aren't sure whether it's the industrial nature of the ingredients themselves, the processing of the foods, or whether it's because they lead people to eat more than they should.
An international team of scientists has now discovered that people gain more weight on an ultra-processed diet compared to a minimally processed diet, even when they eat the same number of calories. The study in humans also revealed a diet high in ultra-processed foods introduces higher levels of pollutants that are known to affect sperm quality. The findings were published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
"Our results prove that ultra-processed foods harm our reproductive and metabolic health, even if they're not eaten in excess. This indicates that it is the processed nature of these foods that makes them harmful," says Jessica Preston, lead author of the study, who carried out the research during her PhD at the University of Copenhagen's NNF Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR).
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