Let me now show an indirect study linking to my hypothesis. I have said that refined oils, detached from vitamins and minerals, cause oxidative stress.
Now separately, there has been a lot of discussion about declining male fertility in society, and its potential connections to diet. I came across this new study that looked at dietary fat and semen quality among men attending a fertility clinic. Here is a table from the paper:
(click to enlarge)
For virtually all types of dietary fat (except omega-3 fat), an increasing amount of fat in the diet leads to lower sperm count and sperm health.
Why is this so? In my opinion, the higher levels of dietary fat are probably brought about from the increased use of oils (though of course this can’t be proven from the paper). But it would go along with the theory that more refined oil = more oxidative stress = lower fertility.
On to part 6…