Women of child-bearing age are encouraged to maintain adequate levels of folate in their diet, but the new findings, to be published, March 20, in the journal Human Reproduction, provide evidence that what men eat may also affect reproductive health.
"Recent studies have suggested that paternal diet affects sperm count and motility, which is important for conception, but this new study takes it further to say that male diet may be important for healthy offspring as well," said study coordinator Suzanne Young, a researcher at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. "Our study is the first to look at the effects of diet on chromosomal abnormalities in sperm. These abnormalities would cause either miscarriages or children with genetic syndromes if the sperm fertilized an egg."