Mom eat a lot of beef, little sperm son

US scientists say if a mother eats too much beef while pregnant, her son may have 25% less sperm than normal, and the risk of infertility triples.

Research by the University of Rochester Medical Center is published in the latest Human Reproduction magazine. This finding only applies to North American women, because beef is very popular here.

Dr. Shanna H. Swan and colleagues studied 387 partners of pregnant women in 5 US cities. Each man provided a sample of sperm and their mother's testimony about the diet when she pregnant her son.

These mothers were asked about the frequency of eating beef and other meats. On average, they eat beef about 4 times per week, and other meats are much less.

The team found that, in general, mothers eat more and more beef, and their sons have lower sperm count. For women who eat at least 7 times a week, the semen's sperm density decreases by an average of 24% compared to normal. And even for men who have children, the likelihood of them having to consult a doctor for infertility is three times higher.

Swan stressed that more research is needed to confirm this information, and that it is too early to ask pregnant women to stop eating beef. But if a pregnant woman wants to prevent it, she can switch to other high-protein foods.

On the other hand, if sperm reduction is related to hormones in beef, Swan's discovery may be just "the tip of an iceberg", because now animal feed is raised in the US and Canada. contains 6 growth promoting hormones. When cattle are slaughtered, some of these hormones are still not fully metabolized, and enter the user's body.

T. An