Pesticide-Treated Fruit and Veggies Killing Sperm, Fertility Study

Men might be better off switching to organic.

According to a new study, men who frequently ate fruits and vegetables high in pesticides were more likely to have a lower sperm count when compared to men who ate less pesticide-laden produce.

"While previous work had linked occupational exposure to pesticides to impaired sperm production I was skeptical that pesticide residues in food could have a similar effect," Dr. Jorge Chavarro, the study author, said to FOX News. "I think this study opened a lot more questions than I had anticipated."

In this study, Dr. Chavarro, who is an assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and his team collected 338 semen samples from 155 men. The men, whose ages ranged from 18 to 55, had attended a fertility clinic between 2007 and 2012.

The team also tracked the men's fruit and vegetable intake and categorized them based on pesticide levels. In order to determine the men's level of exposure to pesticides, the researchers used data from the annual United States Department of Agriculture Pesticide Data Program. They were able to group fruits and vegetables into high, moderate or low pesticide categories.

They found that men who ate more high pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables, which included spinach, apples and strawberries, had an average sperm count of 86 million. Men who ate more produce low in pesticides, such as peas and grapefruit, had an average sperm count of 171 million. The researchers factored in whether or not the fruits or vegetables were peeled before eating.

The team also found that men who ate the most fruits and vegetables from the low-to-moderate pesticide groups had more healthy shaped sperm. The researchers, however, do not recommend men to stop eating fruits and vegetables out of fear that their sperm count and sperm health will be jeopardized. They added that switching to organic produce, particularly for fruits and vegetables that are high in pesticides, could be beneficial.

"I think it is important that these results are replicated in other studies, as it is also important to determine whether the effects on sperm quality translate into observable effects on fertility," Dr. Chavarro added.

The study was published in the journal, Human Reproduction.