👋 Hey BNDK Fam,

For seven years of marriage, my wife and I were unable to have children.

During our first year of marriage, we became pregnant. We were excited. Hopeful. Already imagining what life might look like with a child.

Then, several weeks later, we experienced a miscarriage.

That season hurt.

Eventually, instead of allowing our inability to have children to define our marriage, we decided to LIVE.

We traveled.

We worked on our communication.

We learned to enjoy one another.

We lifted weights together, participated in 5K adventure runs, explored the country, and became serious foodies.

And when I say foodies, I mean FOODIES. 😂

One of our favorite things was visiting restaurants we'd seen featured on Man v. Food and Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

If there was an outrageous food challenge somewhere, we wanted to know about it.

Huge portions.

Deep-fried everything.

Burgers stacked halfway to heaven.

Desserts large enough to feed a small congregation.

At the time, we were working out, running races, traveling and enjoying life. I thought being active meant I was healthy.

Then, about five years into our marriage, the challenge stopped being the food on the plate.

My health forced me to start questioning what I was actually putting into my body.

Not simply:

"How many calories does this have?"

But:

"What is this food doing inside me?"

I began cleaning up my diet.

For our household, that eventually meant dramatically minimizing:

And I began cooking far more of our food at home, which also allowed us to minimize industrial seed oils.

Then something happened that we did not expect.

We conceived our first child.

Today, we have four children with our fifth on the way.

No IVF.

No elaborate fertility protocol.

Nothing particularly glamorous.

Our lives simply changed as our food changed.

I cannot scientifically tell you that changing my diet caused us to become pregnant.

Infertility is complicated.

Miscarriage is complicated.

There are male factors, female factors, genetics, hormones, anatomy, medical conditions, environmental exposures, age and many other variables.

Our experience is our story, not a clinical trial.

I also cannot tell you that removing gluten, dairy, soy or peanuts will increase every man's sperm count. The research does not support making that blanket claim.

But our experience made me curious:

And this is where things get fascinating.

Researchers have increasingly found associations between ultra-processed dietary patterns and poorer semen quality, including sperm concentration, total sperm count and motility.

So gentlemen, this conversation deserves our attention.

This may be the biggest category of all.

Think:

Packaged snack foods, frozen convenience meals, packaged desserts, fast-food items, heavily processed breakfast foods and foods containing long combinations of industrial ingredients.

Research has found that men eating more ultra-processed foods had poorer measures of sperm concentration, count or motility.

The issue may not be one sinister ingredient hiding in your pantry.

It may be the overall dietary environment we've created.

Think:

Several studies examining dietary patterns and fertility have raised concerns about frequent processed-meat consumption and semen quality.

That doesn't mean one hot dog destroys fertility.

It means frequency matters.

Soda.

Sweet tea.

Energy drinks.

Fruit-flavored beverages.

Specialty coffee drinks containing tremendous amounts of added sugar.

Liquid sugar can become one of the easiest ways to consume large amounts of refined carbohydrate without realizing it.

Burger.

Fries.

Soda.

Dessert.

A single fast-food meal can combine several dietary patterns researchers are concerned about:

Ultra-processing + refined carbohydrates + processed meat + excessive sodium + added sugar + poor-quality fats.

Occasionally eating fast food is one thing.

Building your diet around it is another.

Donuts.

Cakes.

Cookies.

Snack cakes.

Packaged pastries.

These frequently combine refined flour, large amounts of added sugar, highly processed fats and other ultra-processed ingredients.

We aren't talking about occasionally celebrating your child's birthday.

We're talking about daily exposure.

Candy at work.

Dessert after dinner.

Sweetened coffee in the morning.

Soda at lunch.

A snack bar in the afternoon.

Sugar has a sneaky way of becoming a supporting actor in nearly every scene of the American diet.

White breads.

Many breakfast cereals.

Crackers.

Pastries.

Refined-flour snacks.

Again, the concern isn't that carbohydrates are inherently bad.

Fruit contains carbohydrates.

Sweet potatoes contain carbohydrates.

Vegetables contain carbohydrates.

The discussion is about a diet dominated by refined carbohydrates while whole foods quietly disappear from the plate.

Fat itself isn't the enemy.

We need dietary fat.

But the source matters.

There's a world of difference between regularly getting fats from foods such as:

avocado, olives, nuts, seeds, eggs and fish

and getting the majority of your dietary fat through:

fried fast food, packaged pastries and highly processed convenience foods.

This one isn't technically food, but it belongs in this conversation.

Frequent heavy alcohol consumption can interfere with hormones, testosterone production and reproductive function.

If you're trying to improve fertility, alcohol deserves an honest evaluation too.

This is really the culmination of everything above.

Maybe we've spent too much time asking:

"Which ingredient is bad?"

when the bigger question should be:

Chicken.

Fish.

Beef.

Eggs.

Vegetables.

Fruit.

Potatoes.

Rice.

Beans.

Nuts.

Herbs.

Spices.

Foods you can look at and generally understand where they came from.

That is dramatically different from a diet where most calories come from packages, drive-thrus, bottles and boxes.

Here's something I wish more men understood.

Human sperm development takes approximately 74 days.

That means the sperm your body produces several months from now are being influenced during their development today.

Your sleep.

Your weight.

Your alcohol intake.

Smoking.

Exercise.

Environmental exposures.

Medical conditions.

And yes, potentially your dietary pattern.

So expecting a fertility transformation after eating broccoli for four days probably isn't going to cut it. 😂

Think in months, not days.

If you're struggling with fertility, consider giving your body a different environment.

Not perfection.

Not another internet detox.

Not 47 supplements.

Start with food.

Cook more meals at home.

Reduce ultra-processed foods.

Reduce added sugar.

Reduce processed meats.

Drink more water.

Eat vegetables every day.

Eat whole fruit.

Choose quality proteins.

Eat fish.

Get healthy fats from whole-food sources.

Exercise.

Sleep.

Manage your weight.

And give the process time.

For me personally, cleaning up our household's food meant minimizing gluten, dairy, soy, peanuts, refined sugar and seed oils as much as reasonably possible.

That was our family's path.

Yours may look different.

But I plead with men who are struggling:

And food is something most of us interact with three, four, five or more times every day.

One scripture comes to mind:

Have faith.

Pray.

Believe.

Ask God for the child you've been praying for.

But while you're believing...

do the work too.

Take care of the body you've been entrusted with.

Change what needs changing.

Get uncomfortable.

Learn to cook.

Move your body.

Get evaluated.

And don't give up because three weeks of eating differently didn't immediately change your circumstances.

Sometimes faith looks like believing for the miracle.

And sometimes the "works" accompanying that faith look remarkably ordinary:

What's going into your grocery cart this week?

If you and your spouse have been trying to conceive without success, please don't use nutrition as a replacement for appropriate medical evaluation.

Do both.

Improve the environment you can control and allow qualified medical professionals to evaluate the things you can't see.

Male infertility isn't something men should be embarrassed to discuss.

A semen analysis can evaluate sperm count, concentration, motility and morphology and give you actual information instead of leaving you guessing.

I don't know whether changing your diet will result in the baby you've been praying for.

Nobody can promise you that.

But I do know this:

And even if your fertility journey doesn't unfold exactly as ours did, improving your metabolic health, cardiovascular health and overall nutrition is still work worth doing.

Faith. Works. Food. Health.

Sometimes a huge life change begins with a surprisingly small decision:

This newsletter shares personal experience and general nutrition information and is not medical or fertility treatment advice.

Burns in the Kitchen

At Burns in the Kitchen, we believe families with dietary restrictions deserve more than survival snacks and side salads.

Our meals are free from gluten, dairy, soy, peanuts, refined sugar, and seed oils because safe food should still taste like something worth celebrating.

Whether you are heading to the State Fair or making memories at home, we want your family to eat with confidence, joy, and a whole lot of flavor.

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