How a man can EAT his way to healthier sperm: Steak, eggs and watermelon help make strong and virile semen, book claims

By Zita West For Mailonline
culled from:http://www.dailymail.co.uk

• Zita West is a fertility expert and author of 'Eat Yourself Pregnant'
• Believes good nutrition helps a man's fertility by creating healthy semen 
• Here, she reveals the vital nutrients needed to keep men's sperm strong 

On Friday, we showed you the foods to eat to prepare a woman's body for baby-making.

Now, a fertility expert says good nutrition can also maximise male virility.

Zita West, a midwife and fertility expert, believes a good diet provides all the building blocks for healthy semen.

Sperm need a range of vitamins, minerals and proteins to stay strong and give them energy on the journey to the egg.

Below, in an extract from her new book, Eat Yourself Pregnant: Essential Recipes for Boosting Your Fertility Naturally, Ms West describes the best foods for fathers-to-be to eat...

It takes two – the fatherhood factor

Despite the fact that conception takes place in the woman’s body and that she will carry the baby, we now know that half of all fertility problems are down to what’s going on inside the man. 

This means that the fertility diet is important for fathers-to-be, too.

In some ways, men are luckier than women.

Whereas a woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have in her lifetime, a man will produce sperm 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

While there comes a time in a woman’s life when she is no longer able to become a mother, a man can become a father (in theory) until his dying day. 

Nonetheless, studies show that men shouldn’t become complacent. 

Here, I want to focus on what’s going on inside the man’s body and show you why it’s so important that fathers-to-be follow the fertility diet, too.

The structure of sperm

The sperm cell is much, much smaller than the egg cell and consists of the head (which contains the genetic material), the mid-piece (which is the energy powerhouse of the sperm) and the tail (which propels the sperm forward). 

The head of the sperm is covered with a cap called the acrosome, a fine membrane that is vulnerable to damage and has to come off before the sperm can penetrate the egg.

Making sperm

The most important role a man has in the process of babymaking is to deliver healthy DNA via sperm carried in his semen. 

Most of the fluid in semen is made up of secretions from the male reproductive organs and contains citric acid, amino acids, fructose, enzymes, prostaglandin, potassium and zinc. Semen is slightly alkaline.

Sperm are made in special tubules, called seminiferous tubules, in the testes. 

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Watermelon contains lycopene, an antioxidant that will help sperm stay healthy, says Ms West. Guava, grapefruit, Sharon fruit and tomatoes also contain lycopene

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Berries and citrus fruits are a rich source of Vitamin C. The health of the sperm begins with the health of the semen, which contains 22 different nutrients and is rich in minerals – notably calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and zinc, and vitamins B12 and C

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It takes 100 days for a sperm to become fully grown. Over that time, what a man eats can have an impact on how healthy each and every one of his sperm will be, Ms West says

It takes around 100 days altogether for each sperm to become fully grown – 74 days for a single sperm to develop, before it moves from the tubules into a coiled tube called the epididymis, where it spends 20 to 30 days maturing. 

Over that time, what a man eats and the lifestyle choices he makes can have their own impact on how healthy each and every one of his sperm will be.

Sperm need enormous amounts of energy.

Think of the scale of the journey they undertake relative to their size. From inside the scrotal sac, they are propelled out of the penis into the woman. 

Eggs contain amino acides, the proteins that are the building blocks for healthy sperm

Passing along the woman’s reproductive tract to get to the egg is like a human swimming the Pacific Ocean. 

But each sperm not only has to make the journey, it also has to win the race.

Each sperm swims as fast as it can to get to the woman’s fallopian tube first. 

Once there, the winning sperm has to drill into the egg to download its most precious genetic material.

Forty million sperm or more are ejaculated and begin to make this journey. 

The remainder of the ejaculate comes from the prostate and is rich in zinc, which sperm need in order to stay healthy on their journey and to stabilize their DNA. 

Despite the millions of sperm that enter the woman's body, only about 200 will reach the fallopian tube, helped by the woman's alkaline vaginal secretions.

Sperm can usually survive between three and five days once inside the woman's body. 

What is the sperm carrying?

The head of the sperm contains half a baby’s DNA (half the baby’s genetic blueprint; the other half is in the woman's egg). 

In the egg, the DNA is tightly packed into an X-sex chromose. 

Sperm may carry their DNA in either an X or a Y sex chromosome.

The sperm's chromosome pairs with the egg's chromosome to make either XX (which results in a baby girl) or XY (a boy).