Eating food with high pesticide residues linked with poor semen quality

Of course, meat accumulates a lot of pesticides from the plants they eat.
And note below, men who ate more fruits & veggies with low pesticides did better than those who ate less fruits & veggies.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/hsop-efa032915.php

Public Release: 30-Mar-2015
Harvard School of Public Health

Men who ate fruits and vegetables with higher levels of pesticide residues--such as strawberries, spinach, and peppers--had lower sperm count and a lower percentage of normal sperm than those who ate produce with lower residue levels, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It is the first study to look at the connection between exposure to pesticide residues from fruits and vegetables and semen quality.

The study will appear online March 30, 2015 in the journal Human Reproduction.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report to link consumption of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables, a primary exposure route for most people, to an adverse reproductive health outcome in humans," said Jorge Chavarro, assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology and the study's senior author.

Multiple studies have shown that consuming conventionally grown fruits and vegetables results in measurable pesticide levels in urine. Other studies have uncovered associations between occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides and lower semen quality. But only a few studies have linked consumption of pesticide residues in food to health effects, and none had looked at the effects on semen quality.

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The men who ate the most fruits and vegetables with low-to-moderate levels of pesticide residue had a higher percentage of normal sperm compared with those who ate less fruits and vegetables with low-to-moderate levels.

"These findings should not discourage the consumption of fruit and vegetables in general," said Chavarro. "In fact, we found that consuming more fruits and vegetables with low pesticide residues was beneficial. This suggests that implementing strategies specifically targeted at avoiding pesticide residues, such as consuming organically-grown produce or avoiding produce known to have large amounts of residues, may be the way to go."