The level of folate a man consumes could have an effect on his chances of fathering a child, new research in the journal Human Reproduction suggests.
Folate is a water-soluble B vitamin found in leafy green vegetables, fruit and pulses and is known to be important for women who are trying to conceive.
However, the latest research from the University of California, Berkeley, has found that it may also be needed by men.
Experts studied sperm samples from 89 non-smoking men and found that those who ate the most folate were the least likely to have sperm aneuploidy, where the sperm has lost or gained a chromosome and is therefore abnormal.
Brenda Eskenazi, professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology at the university, confirmed: 'We found a statistically significant association between high folate intake and lower sperm aneuploidy.
'There was increasing benefit with increasing intake, and men in the upper 25th percentile who had the highest intake of folate between 722 to 1150 micrograms, had 20 to 30 per cent lower frequencies of several types of aneuploidy compared with men with a lower intake.'
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