Do Organ Meats Boost Male Fertility? | FAM Research Series

Episode 598

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This is the Fertility Friday podcast, episode 598.
I’m excited for today’s episode because we’re going to get into a little bit of the
bias that exists in research. And this is definitely a theme of the FAM research
series. We want to be able to appreciate the research that we have available to us.
We want to be able to dive into it. But we also want to be able to look at it
with a critical eye and recognize what the data really says. And be able to see
the researchers’ perspective. So it’s not to say that the researchers are incorrect
or that if you have a different perspective, you’re correct. But it’s really helpful
when looking at data to be able to see and acknowledge the perspective that person
is coming from. And then, especially if you are yourself into reading research and
learning how to interpret complex data points and all that, you do want to be able
to see that perspective that the person is coming from and understand how that can
affect how this person would be looking at data. And if you can get there, that’s
a really useful and important place to be at because you can have the same data
and you can have two people interpret the exact same data in different ways.
And so we are going to talk about that today with today’s study.
So the topic that we’re going to be talking about today, the question is, does
organ meat boost male fertility? This is something that I’ve spoken about on the
podcast generally. I’ve talked about liver and organ meats for a very long time.
This is something that I wrote about in the fifth vital sign. And most recently,
this is something that Lily and I tackled in real food for fertility in a number
of different ways. So in real food for fertility, we present a lot of evidence
behind a variety of key nutrients that support fertility and also a lot of evidence
for specific foods that are associated with improved fertility outcomes. And that’s
one of the reasons why so many people appreciate our work, because we really go
deep into what the research has to say. And sometimes, in order to get to that
research, you have to read past the abstract to see what the data actually shows.
So the study that we’re going to be going on looking at today is called meat
intake and reproductive parameters among young men. This study was so interesting.
I remember when I was looking at it and I was writing the sperm quality chapter
and I remember Lily and I were going back and forth. And I remember messaging her
and being like, what is going on here with this study? They hid the most
interesting data points behind the abstract. They don’t even mention it. And in fact,
based on the study results, they could have named the study something completely
different. So I’m going to leave that as a little bit of a cliffhanger and just
kind of get into it. So when I was talking about bias and understanding where the
researchers are coming from, one of the reasons why I was doing that is because
it’s clear from the beginning of this study that the researchers bear hypothesis.
So what I can do as well is just kind of read their hypothesis and so that you
understand what their mindset is going into this study. So right here in the study
itself, it says we hypothesized that higher red meat consumption would be associated
with lower semen quality parameters. And so they talk a little bit about the reason
why they feel that red meat is bad overall, like as a category. And one of the
things that they talk about is that there are potentially residual hormones in the
meat. And so they say levels of hormone residues and edible tissues are higher, you
know, da -da -da. So they’re kind of, they have a reason for their premise, but
basically they’re going into it saying, like, we think that red meat as a category
is bad for fertility. That’s their hypothesis. And so the way that they went about
it, so this is a cross -sectional observational study. They looked at 18 ,000 healthy
men between the ages of 18 and 22 years old in the University of Rochester in New
York. and they divided the meat into different categories.
So they were looking at meat, and so they looked at processed red meats, and they
defined processed red meats as including things like hamburgers, hot dogs, bacon,
salami, and baloney. And in terms of organ meats, so they defined that as actually
I’m jumping ahead. So processed meat, hamburger hot dogs, bacon, slimy, bologna, and
then unprocessed red meats, they defined as beef, pork, ham, just meats that are not
processed. Oregon meats had their own category, and that was defined as liver from
beef, calf, pork, chicken, or turkey, poultry, chicken, or turkey, and then fish
total intake. So they divided all of the different meats into these categories, and
then they were kind of looking at how the consumption of these meats impacts. So
they had these men give samples, they had these men give semen samples, and they
measured the ejaculate volume, the sperm concentration, total sperm count, motility,
and morphology. They also measured hormones, and they measured a few different things.
So it kind of gives you a general idea of how they’re doing it. And then they, of
course, looked at their dietary records to determine their consumption of the various
types of meats. So let me go over what the results are,
and then we’ll talk about it because, like I said, this is like the gift that
keeps on giving. So they did find that the men in the study who consumed processed
red meat, they found that they had a lower total sperm count. The ejaculate volume
decreased significantly, so there was a lower volume. And otherwise,
they said they didn’t find any associations with sperm concentration, motility, or
morphology. But overall, there was a bit of a lower sperm count for the men who
consumed processed meat. Interestingly, the men who consumed unprocessed red meat,
so just red meat that, you know, isn’t hot dogs and things like that, there was no
negative association with semen parameters at all. And actually, there was a slight,
but not statistically significant, increase in certain parameters.
So the sperm concentration increased slightly from about 43 to 55 million sperm per
millimeter. Morphology from about 8 % to about 10%. And progressive motility,
meaning the sperm that are swimming forward, increased a little bit from 56 %
approximately to 61%. But other than that, there weren’t a lot of differences. But
interestingly, so they found that the processed meat consumers, on average,
had lower total sperm count. But the unprocessed red meat, they said no negative
association. But again, There was this slightly increased, but not,
it didn’t hit statistical significance. But if you kind of rewind back to when I
went over those numbers, I mean, that’s interesting. Because basically that’s showing
that the red meat was not associated with lower semen parameters at all. Now, this
is where it gets interesting. So organ meats actually had a statistically significant,
positive association across all of the key sperm parameters. So there was an increase
by about 53 % in total sperm count. There was an increase of about 41 % of sperm
concentration. And there was about an 8 % increase in higher progressive motility.
And they did their statistical analysis, and these associations remained after they
kind of accounted for certain factors like animal fat, protein, cholesterol,
micronutrients. So they did their statistical analysis and even with that statistical
analysis, the positive association remained. In terms of poultry and fish,
there was no significant associations with the semen parameters or hormones. Now,
what is fascinating about this is that finding itself is really interesting,
right? that the organ meats were associated with such a significantly improved sperm
parameters. And also that unprocessed red meat was associated with slightly positive
sperm parameters. So what we have here, if you remember the hypothesis, the
hypothesis was that red meat consumption as a category would have a detrimental
effect on sperm parameters. So we have a situation where the results of the study
are contradicting what the researchers thought was going to happen. So what do we
see here? When I saw those results and I was chatting about how I was like
messaging Lillian, we were having this conversation about it, I was like, they could
have named this paper, Oregon meat significantly increased sperm parameters. But that’s
not what they did. Not at all. Let’s find out what they did. Okay. So if you
actually pull up the study, if you see the, we’ll link, we always link the study.
So if you want to jump into the show notes page, fertility friday .com slash 598,
you’ll find it. But if you go and you look at the abstract, this information isn’t
even shown. They didn’t even report it in the abstract. They also didn’t report in
their abstract the result of unprocessed meat. So they didn’t even talk about that.
They actually chose the one parameter, the one factor that agreed with their
hypothesis, and that’s all that they put in the abstract. So in the abstract, they
say, okay, well, there was this negative association with processed meat. And one
thing to keep in mind is that there certainly is a bias against red meat. This is
not to say that there aren’t issues with conventional meat production. Obviously,
there are issues with conventional meat production and meat quality and things like
that. But there is a bias in research against red meat. And Lily had a whole
section on the Mediterranean diet in real food for fertility that is worth a read
if this is something that you are familiar with and you’re wanting a little bit of
clarity on what the research has to say about it. So the reason I bring up this
kind of bias against processed meat is because there are other factors that could be
playing a role in the reason why processed meat was associated. Because if you
remember when I kind of went through their results, there were no associations of,
so processed meat didn’t lower sperm concentration, motility, or morphology. There was
no association there. It resulted in a lower total sperm count, but, you know,
it actually didn’t significantly have a detrimental effect on all these other factors.
And so one hypothesis, or one additional way to look at this, if you did a study
where they were kind of looking at the processed meat, you would want to also find
out the other things that these people are consuming. For example, if you have a
population that’s consuming a lot of processed meat, it is also possible that they’re
consuming more sugary beverages or refined carbohydrates or seed oils,
right, omega -6 fatty acids. So potentially they’re consuming less vegetables,
less fruits and vegetables, right? So there’s, you want to be able to identify if
it’s really the meat, that’s the issue, or if that population also tends to consume
other foods that are known to be detrimental. And so I think for that reason, if
your assumption is that meat is just bad, then you’re looking for that when you are
kind of looking at the research and you’re not necessarily looking at it in a more
nuanced way. So we’ll just keep on trucking here.
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So if we get back to the study, again, the researcher’s hypothesis. So I’m actually
going to read a little bit from the author’s conclusion because I do think this is
telling. So the authors say, we investigated the association of meat intake with
semen quality parameters and reproductive hormone levels among young men. We had
hypothesized that meat consumption would be associated with poor semen quality
parameters and this relation would be stronger for meats where higher level of
hormone residues have previously been documented. In support of our hypothesis, we
found that processed red meat intake was inversely related to total sperm count.
However, they continue. In contradiction to our hypothesis, we also found that organ
meat intake was associated with higher sperm count, sperm concentration, and motility.
Now, in this particular section, they don’t also note that unprocessed meat was not
associated with a negative sperm outcome.
our result should be interpreted with caution as they may represent chance findings
or, in the case of total sperm count, residual confounding by abstinence time. So
what you’re seeing here is that these researchers had a really strong opinion that
this is what was going to happen. And then when they ran the analysis and did the
study and saw the results, the results contradicted what they thought. They hung on
to the one piece of data that supports their hypothesis. They don’t necessarily go
critically into it to see if there could have been any confounding factors because
that just supports their hypothesis. And then when they see results that not only
contradict, but like, it would appear as though, based on just the results that
organ meat has a positive impact on sperm. I mean, that’s great news, isn’t it? We
found something that could significantly improve sperm parameters. No, No, no, no.
They promptly dismiss those results. Say that it’s…
research or bias, because research papers aren’t written, I mean, maybe now it’s AI,
chat GBT, and Claude and all these other interesting AI tools. Maybe now they are
being written by robots, but generally speaking, research articles are written by
human beings, and human beings have biases. I mean, if I were to write a research
paper, I know I have my own biases as well, and I would have to acknowledge those
potential biases and how that could affect my interpretation of the results as well.
But this is a really interesting example of how a researcher’s perspective can change
how they report on those results. If you had a researcher who actually had the
hypothesis that organ meats improve sperm parameters, the discussion around the results
would have been completely different because that would have been their hypothesis and
their assumption and their expectation. And they would have had a whole different
analysis of that. Because if you think that there could be a positive association
between organ meats and sperm parameters, you’re going to look for other studies that
might be showing the same thing or you’re going to hypothesize different things. When
you read the discussion of a research paper, it’s a really fascinating piece of the
paper because that’s where the author is kind of going in and telling you, well, I
think that this is why these results are this way. And that’s really the part of
the study that you get to see where the biases come out because They give you
their explanation. And especially when you have a paper where the results are not
what the author expected, you often see the author trying to explain them away.
They’re just like, I don’t know why. This is impossible. So this is definitely an
important, just the study really highlights a couple things. So first and foremost,
it shouldn’t be shocking that organ meats are associated with an increase in sperm
parameters. when you understand the nutrients that are required to support sperm
development, namely nutrients like vitamin A, nutrients like zinc, B12,
folate, coline, selenium, you could really go on and on. But particularly, vitamin A
retinol has a really significant role in sperm parameters. Also, nutrients like CO
-10, there’s so much research on CO10 and how it supports mitochondria and the role
that it can play in supporting sperm parameters.
They were supporting their sperm parameters with these key nutrients that are found
in high quantities, in organ meats. And even the result that red meat overall had a
slightly improved, the men who consumed red meat, had a slightly higher overall sperm
parameters, though it did not reach statistical significance. Again, what are the
things that men are told to consume? What are the nutrients that are studied when
we’re looking to improve sperm parameters? Well, here’s one, L. carnitine. Where is
that found?
to me. This was definitely a really, like when I was writing real food for
fertility, when I was writing the sperm chapter, I just remember spending some time
on the study and thinking, man, like the researchers, their conclusion could have
been very different. And of course, one study does not end a topic. It’s not the
be on and end all. But when I see studies like this that don’t match the
researchers’ hypotheses, really and truly, it’s interesting. Like I said, their
conclusion was kind of like, well, there was probably just some sort of error, some
sort of issue. They totally explained it away. But, you know, a different research
team could also have said these results, though they were not what we were
expecting, do suggest that there could be a positive association between organ meat
consumption and semen parameters. This warrants further study. And this would be a
great opportunity for researchers to kind of jump in and explore this further.
But no, that’s not what they said. So if you’re interested to learn more about
sperm parameters, how normal parameters have been defined by our beloved World Health
Organization, and how those parameters differ from optimal parameters and all of those
important topics, as well as how to support and improve sperm parameters based on
what the research really says, then you’ll love real food for fertility. We have a
whole chapter on sperm quality. And in that chapter, one of the things that you may
or may not know is that there was a time where I contemplated writing a whole book
about sperm quality. So I have a lot to say about it. And really did a deep dive
into the research. I mean, in that chapter alone, we have over 250 notes, citations.
And often in each citation number, there are multiple studies cited. So it’s a
really extensive evidence -based exploration of sperm parameters. And of course, a
discussion of this study is included, but there are many more. So if you haven’t
grabbed your copy of that yet, Real Food for Fertility .com, you can get the first
chapter for free. And of course, you can grab your copy on Amazon. And we also
have it in an audio book version. So if you’re on Audible, you can grab it there
too. I know that our fan practitioners love our FAM research series episodes,
and these episodes often spark discussions within our fertility awareness mastery
mentorship certification. So if you are loving the research that we talk about,
analyzing it, going through it, then you’ll absolutely love FAM also because we take
it to a whole other level. And of course, our practitioners have access to all of
the full text references that we reference when we are talking about fertility
awareness strategies, our FAM protocols, even the femme research series. So if this
is piqued your interest, definitely head over to fertility friday .com slash fam live,
FAMM -L -I -V -E, for more details about our next round of FAMM. So remember to look
at research critically, consider the author’s perspective and their biases and where
they’re coming from. And when possible, review the whole study. If you’re an abstract
person and you just read the abstract and think you’re getting the skinny on the
study, you would be rock.
So with that said, I hope that you have a wonderful week, a wonderful weekend
whenever you’re tuning into the show. And of course, as always, until next time, be
well, and happy charting.
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