You’ve probably heard the rumor saying that eating soya drops sperm counts. Well, a new study suggest than men can almost carelessly eat the aliment because "there's no reason to panic at this moment,” says lead researcher Jorge Chavarro, at Harvard School of Public Health. It’s too early to determine whether there is a link between soya consumption and male fertility, he adds.

Last year, Chavarro and his team tried to find a connection between soya intake and sperm count in 99 men. The findings showed that the more soya vegetable the participants ate, the lower their sperm counts were.

However, Richard Sharpe from the MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit highlights the fact that as long as men's sperm counts were still within the normal level, any belief or assertion linking soya with male fertility finds no justification. Moreover, the fact that 72 percent of the participants were overweight supports Sharps’s claim; heaviness makes men more susceptible to soya effects, he says.

 

The Soya Protein Association dismissed Chavarro’s claims on the basis that the study was carried out only by taking into consideration men’s recall of their previous soy foods intake. The influence of other key factors such as foods, drugs or sexual activities hasn’t been taken into account when claiming the decrease in sperm count. Therefore, the research is incomplete, asserts the SPA.

 Other similar studies have been taken in the past. For instance, in 2001 healthy young men were given soya for two months. Based on the findings, researchers disclosed that the ejaculated volume, sperm quantity, count and motility of sperm cells were the same.