There has been a lot written about carrot, especially its beneficial effects as vision aider. But beyond its immense benefits to the eyes, carrot has been discovered to offer more health benefits to men than ever imagined in relation to their sexual activities. Jenny Hope of Daily Mail reports on the findings of a new research on the benefits of carrot on the human sperm.
Carrots have long been said to be good for your vision. Now, it has emerged, they can also improve the fertility of men.
Researchers investigating the effect of fruit and vegetables on the health of sperm discovered that carrots produced the best all-round results.
They had the greatest effect on ‘motility’ – a term used to describe the ability of sperm to swim towards an egg.
Researchers at Harvard University in the US asked almost 200 young men to follow diets containing a variety of fruit and veg before testing to see what effect it had on sperm.
Yellow and orange foods were found to help make the sperm stronger.
The boost was attributed to pigments called carotenoids because the body converts some of these into health-boosting antioxidants.
These include beta-carotene, which the body can make into the antioxidant vitamin A.
Antioxidants help to neutralise free radicals, destructive groups of atoms that are a by-product of metabolism and can damage cell membranes and DNA.
Sweet potato and melon can enhance the quantity and quality of sperm, but carrots were found to improve sperm performance by between 6.5 and 8 per cent, according to a report in the journal Fertility and Sterility.