Tomato Soup May Boost Male Fertility
By Michelle Fabio
A recent study at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom suggests that male fertility may be enhanced by a bowl of tomato soup a day—this because of the increased levels of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that gives tomatoes its red color, in the subjects’ semen.
Researchers had six healthy male volunteers with an average age of 42 eat a can of Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup every day for two weeks. The results, published in the British Journal of Urology, found that lycopene levels in semen increased by between seven and 12 percent in the men.
This is “significant,” say researchers, because infertile men typically have lower levels of lycopene, leading them to believe that higher levels of lycopene are connected with fertility.
Although this information is promising, researchers agree that more studies need to be performed to determine whether whether increased levels of lycopene in semen truly mean more killing of free radicals that can affect male fertility and whether eating tomato soup could actually boost male fertility.
