Eating a healthy diet can improve sperm health and overall fertility, but now there is evidence that adding walnuts to your diet could give your sperm a significant boost. Researchers have found that, in men seeking treatment for infertility, walnuts could offer hope.
How Can Walnuts Help?
In 2019, a team of researchers led by Wendie Robbins studied a group of 75 men who had requested fertility treatment. Then men were aged between 27 and 61. All gave a semen sample at the start of the study to demonstrate the baseline health of their sperm.
The men were then split into two groups. One group was given a nutritional supplement that is usually recommended for male reproductive health. The other group added walnuts to their diet every day for 3 months.
After 3 months, the structure of the sperm cells produced had improved compared to baseline in both groups of men. However, the group who had been eating walnuts each day also showed improvement in both the movement of their sperm and overall sperm concentration.
In very early data, there was also a higher frequency of pregnancy in the group who added walnuts to their diet, although further research is required to confirm the statistical significance of this finding.
Eating More Walnuts
Adding walnuts to your diet could give your sperm quality a natural boost. You may therefore have the urge to make coffee and walnut cake part of your daily diet. However, eat a balanced, varied diet can support sperm production, so it may be wise to think of healthier ways to add walnuts into your diet.
This could include:
- Bell pepper pesto pasta with walnuts
- Savory walnut bread
- Creamy walnut pesto with pasta
- Broccoli, walnut and blue cheese salad
- Eggplant and walnut ragu
- Walnut and goats cheese pastries
You could also add walnuts to the following dishes:
- Breakfast cereal or granola
- Salads
- Omelet
- Savory tarts
- Dips and hummus
- Fruit or veg smoothies
YO Home Tests
If you want to check your sperm motility at home, it’s easy with a YO Home Test. Completing a YO test tells you how motile your sperm is, and compares your result to the results of other men who have fathered children. If your sperm motility is low, you may wish to speak to a urologist or fertility specialist about appropriate next steps.
Final Thoughts
Research has shown that eating walnuts every day for 3 months can improve the motility and concentration of sperm cells. There is also early evidence to suggest that adding walnuts to your diet could improve your chance of conceiving with your partner.
You can easily increase your walnut intake in a healthy manner, either by cooking fresh new dishes, or by adding them to your usual meals. It’s also helpful to remember that taking a fertility supplement was found to improve the structure of sperm cells, so you may wish to stock up on fertility vitamins, too.
Find out more about YO Sperm Tests here.
