Ultra-Processed Foods and Male Fertility: Beyond the Hype
Ultra-processed foods — or UPFs — have become one of the biggest talking points in nutrition over the past few years.
They are often linked with obesity, metabolic disease, inflammation, and poorer long-term health outcomes. More recently, researchers have also started exploring whether dietary patterns high in ultra-processed foods may affect sperm health and male fertility.
At the same time, the conversation online has become increasingly extreme.
Some people now talk about UPFs as though anything that comes in a packet is automatically harmful, while others dismiss the entire topic as fearmongering or nutrition elitism.
As usual, the reality is probably somewhere in the middle.
The current evidence does not support panic or perfection. But it does suggest that dietary patterns heavily dominated by ultra-processed foods may be less supportive of overall metabolic health and, potentially, sperm health over time.
What Are Ultra-Processed Foods?
The term “ultra-processed food” comes from the NOVA food classification system, which groups foods according to the degree and purpose of processing (Monteiro et al.).
At one end are minimally processed foods such as fruit, vegetables, eggs, oats, rice, fish, meat, legumes, milk, and nuts.
You then move through processed culinary ingredients and processed foods — things like oils, butter, cheese, canned beans, freshly baked bread, smoked fish, and tinned vegetables.
Ultra-processed foods sit at the far end of that spectrum.
These foods are typically industrially formulated products made using combinations of refined ingredients, additives, flavourings, emulsifiers, preservatives, stabilisers, sweeteners, and manufacturing techniques that generally would not be replicated in a normal home kitchen (Monteiro et al.).
In practical terms, they are often products that require commercial ingredients or industrial processing techniques beyond what you would typically find in an everyday family kitchen.
Common examples include:
Soft drinks
Confectionery
Packaged snack foods
Fast food
Processed meats
Instant noodles
Many frozen convenience meals
Some packaged baked goods and breakfast cereals
The Important Nuance Around UPFs
This is where the conversation becomes more complicated.
Not all processed foods are the same.
Not all ultra-processed foods are nutritionally equivalent.
And not everything that comes in a packet belongs in the same category.
One of the major criticisms of the NOVA system is that foods with very different nutritional profiles can still end up grouped together under the same ultra-processed label. For example, soft drinks, packaged pastries, and confectionery products may technically sit in the same category as fortified wholegrain breakfast cereals, high-protein yoghurts, or medically formulated meal-replacement products.That doesn’t mean the concept of ultra-processed foods is useless. But it does mean we need to think critically about the topic and avoid reducing nutrition down to simplistic “processed equals bad” messaging.
Why Researchers Became Concerned About UPFs
Part of the concern comes from growing evidence linking dietary patterns high in ultra-processed foods with poorer long-term health outcomes. For example, a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of more than 207,000 adults found that higher UPF intake was associated with increased all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality, with risk increasing as the dietary share of UPFs rose (Suksatan et al.).
That doesn’t prove that UPFs directly cause every adverse health outcome. But it does help explain why researchers have become increasingly interested in this dietary pattern.
Diets high in ultra-processed foods also tend to be:
Lower in fibre
Lower in overall nutrient quality
Easier to overconsume
Lower in foods consistently linked with better long-term health outcomes
Importantly, diets high in ultra-processed foods often displace foods such as vegetables, legumes, wholegrains, seafood, nuts, and other minimally processed foods. And that matters for fertility. Sperm health does not exist in isolation. Sperm develop within the broader metabolic and hormonal environment of the body. Factors such as obesity, insulin resistance, inflammation, oxidative stress, poor sleep, and poorer overall diet quality are all associated with poorer male reproductive health.
Researchers have also started exploring whether ultra-processed dietary patterns may influence inflammation, hormone regulation, gut health, insulin signalling, and exposure to certain packaging-related compounds. Many of these mechanisms are still being investigated. But together, they help explain why this area has attracted growing research interest in male fertility.
What Does the Fertility Evidence Actually Show?
At the moment, most of the fertility evidence is observational. That means researchers are looking at associations between dietary patterns and semen parameters, rather than proving direct cause and effect.
Overall, the pattern is fairly consistent.
Several studies have now found that men consuming higher amounts of ultra-processed foods tend to have poorer semen parameters — particularly lower sperm concentration, lower total sperm count, and lower sperm motility.
One of the strongest recent papers looked at both Mediterranean diet adherence and UPF intake in 358 men attending a reproductive medicine centre in Italy (Petre et al.). In that study, higher Mediterranean diet adherence was associated with better semen parameters, while higher UPF intake was associated with poorer semen parameters. The findings also suggested that diet may matter most when baseline testicular function is relatively preserved, which is clinically important because nutrition is not magic — context matters (Petre et al.).
The Led-Fertyl study also found that higher UPF consumption was inversely associated with semen quality parameters in reproductive-age men (Valle-Hita et al.). Higher UPF intake was linked with lower sperm concentration and total motility, while replacing 10% of energy from UPFs with unprocessed or minimally processed foods was associated with better total sperm count, concentration, motility, progressive motility, and normal sperm forms.
And in healthy young Italian men, higher UPF intake was associated with lower sperm concentration and progressive motility, even after adjustment for several potential confounders (Ceretti et al.).
Taken together, these studies suggest a consistent signal linking dietary patterns heavily dominated by ultra-processed foods with poorer semen quality.
The Limitations of the Current Research
It is important not to overstate what this research means. Observational studies can only take us so far.
Men consuming large amounts of ultra-processed foods may also differ in many other ways, including:
Physical activity
Smoking
Stress levels
This makes it difficult to separate the effect of ultra-processed foods themselves from the broader lifestyle patterns that often accompany them.
That is why the intervention evidence is especially interesting.
One recent controlled crossover trial placed healthy young men on either an ultra-processed diet or an unprocessed diet for three weeks (Preston et al.). Importantly, the diets were designed to contain similar calories and similar macronutrient intake, meaning the researchers were trying to isolate whether the degree of processing itself might matter, rather than simply differences in calories, protein, carbohydrate, or fat. Compared with the unprocessed diet, the ultra-processed diet was associated with less favourable changes in body composition and cardiometabolic markers. It also altered several reproductive and metabolic hormones, including FSH, and was associated with higher serum concentration of a phthalate metabolite (Preston et al.). There were also trends toward poorer sperm motility and lower testosterone levels, although not all fertility measures changed significantly.
This study doesn’t prove that ultra-processed foods directly cause infertility. But it does strengthen the idea that dietary patterns heavily dominated by ultra-processed foods may influence the broader metabolic and hormonal environment sperm develop within — and that the issue may not be explained by calories alone.
So What Should Men Actually Take Away From This?
At this stage, diets heavily dominated by ultra-processed foods do appear less supportive of overall metabolic health and, potentially, sperm health. But this is not as simple as “processed food equals infertility.” Part of the issue is probably the food itself. Part is likely the broader dietary and lifestyle pattern surrounding it. That also means you probably don’tt need to panic about occasionally eating ultra-processed foods.
Most people will include some of these foods at times. That’s normal. The bigger question is what the overall diet is built around most of the time.
Because sperm health is rarely determined by one single food.
It is shaped by the broader environment sperm develop within over time, including:
Diet quality
Metabolic health
Sleep
Physical activity
Body composition
Alcohol intake
Smoking
Other lifestyle factors working together across the 12 week sperm development window
The goal usually isn’t perfection. It’s building a dietary pattern that is:
More consistent
More nutrient-dense
Less reliant on heavily processed convenience foods dominating the day
Most dietary patterns consistently linked with better sperm health tend to include more minimally processed foods, vegetables, fruit, legumes, wholegrains, nuts, seafood, and healthier fat sources overall. In practice, this often looks less like extreme restriction and more like improving the overall quality and structure of the diet over time.
If you want a practical example of what this looks like day-to-day, you can also download my free 7-Day Men’s Fertility Meal Plan.
Final Thoughts
Ultra-processed foods are probably one of the most misunderstood areas of modern nutrition.
The evidence doesn’t support panic, perfection, or the idea that every processed food is equally harmful. But the current research does suggest that dietary patterns heavily dominated by ultra-processed foods are likely less supportive of long-term metabolic health and may also be less supportive of optimal sperm health over time.
At the moment, the most practical approach is probably not extreme avoidance. It is focusing on stronger nutritional foundations:
More minimally processed foods
Better overall diet quality
Greater consistency
And less reliance on heavily processed convenience patterns dominating the diet day after day
Because when it comes to sperm health, it is the long-term environment that probably matters most.
If you’d like a broader overview of the key nutrition and lifestyle factors that influence sperm quality, you can also read my guide on how to improve sperm health naturally.
Want Personalised Support?
If you’re trying to improve sperm health, preparing for IVF, or wanting clearer direction around fertility nutrition, you can learn more about booking a Sperm Health Assessment with Axis Dietetics.
I work with men and couples across Australia via telehealth, with a focus on evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle strategies to support reproductive health and fertility potential.
References
Monteiro CA, Cannon G, Levy RB, Moubarac JC, Louzada MLC, Rauber F, Khandpur N, Cediel G, Neri D, Martinez-Steele E, et al. Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them. Public Health Nutr. 2019;22(5):936-941.
Suksatan W, Moradi S, Naeini F, Bagheri R, Mohammadi H, Talebi S, Mehrabani S, Hojjati Kermani MA, Suzuki K. Ultra-processed food consumption and adult mortality risk: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of 207,291 participants. Nutrients. 2022;14(1):174.
Petre GC, Francini-Pesenti F, De Toni L, Di Nisio A, Mingardi A, Cosci I, Passerin N, Ferlin A, Garolla A. Role of Mediterranean diet and ultra-processed foods on sperm parameters: data from a cross-sectional study. Nutrients. 2025;17(13):2066.
Valle-Hita C, Salas-Huetos A, Fernández de la Puente M, Martínez MÁ, Canudas S, Palau-Galindo A, Mestres C, Manzanares JM, Murphy MM, Marquès M, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and semen quality parameters in the Led-Fertyl study. Hum Reprod Open. 2024;2024(1):hoae001.
Ceretti E, Bonaccio M, Iacoviello L, Di Castelnuovo A, Ruggiero E, Donato F, Lorenzetti S, Zani D, Montano L. Consumption of ultra-processed foods and semen quality in healthy young men living in Italy. Nutrients. 2024;16(23):4129.
Preston JM, Iversen J, Hufnagel A, Hjort L, Taylor J, Sanchez C, George V, Hansen AN, Ängquist L, Hermann S, et al. Effect of ultra-processed food consumption on male reproductive and metabolic health. Cell Metab. 2025;37(10):1950-1960.