If you ask the internet how a man should eat to support his fertility, you'll get fifty answers around fertilitymaxxing. Carnivore. Mediterranean. High-fat. Low-carb. Organic everything. It can be overwhelming to know what direction actually moves the needle and how you can integrate this into your life.

So when we sat down with Brooke Boskovich for the Our TIES podcast, I asked her the question I actually wanted answered. Of all the nutritional advice out there, what are the two biggest shifts that actually move the needle when it comes to male fertility?

Brooke Boskovich is a functional medicine dietitian specializing in fertility and reproductive health. Over the past nine years, she has helped hundreds of couples overcome fertility challenges and finally take home healthy babies, even after years of trying. She combines evidence-based nutrition with a holistic, root-cause approach to identify and remove the barriers that stand in the way of optimal fertility. She was also one of our advisors on the TIES Foundations formulation. Her answer to my question was direct.

Quality protein. And color.

Shift one: quality protein, and specifically animal protein

What I will add here is in the current climate where we are seeing protein popcorns and even some protein sodas, it may not necessarily come as a surprise that protein is on the menu for male fertility support, however, consider this your comprehensive clarifier.

Brooke's first recommendation was focusing on quality protein intake, and she was specific about why animal protein in particular.

"What the animal ate and how it lived impacts the nutrients that you're getting in the meat," she said. A grass-fed cow and a grain-fed cow produce different beef. A chicken raised outside eating bugs in the grass lays a different egg than a chicken raised in a warehouse.

"Mother nature is pretty cool like that," Brooke said. It's also kind of the whole point. What the animal ate becomes what you eat, which becomes the raw material your body uses to build new cells. Including sperm.

The rough rule of thumb: roughly one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.

Brooke added the caveat that a man not currently eating anywhere near that amount shouldn't wake up tomorrow and shock his system with 180 grams. Start slower. Chew your food. Listen to your body. But that's the target.

Shift two: color

The second shift is antioxidants, and Brooke's shortcut for it is color.

"Deep rich colorful produce is going to be helpful in so many ways," she told us. Beets. Berries. Citrus. Dark leafy greens. Red and orange fruits and vegetables. The colors are the giveaway. Those pigments are often the antioxidants themselves.

The reason color matters for sperm, specifically, is about damage. Brooke explained that even normal metabolic processes in the body produce oxidative stress, which can degrade sperm quality, lowering motility and affecting morphology. Internal stressors, external toxins, lifestyle factors, they all add to that load. Antioxidants are what the body uses to counter it.

"The antioxidants come in and help decrease the amount of damage," she said.

Put more simply: color protects. Most plates don't have much of it.

Why these two shifts in particular

The reason protein and color made Brooke's top two isn't that everything else is useless. It's that these are the two that have the most material impact on how sperm gets built and how it gets protected.

Sperm isn't a fixed thing. It's built, continuously, from the nutrients a man is taking in. Protein supplies the building blocks. Antioxidants protect what gets built from getting damaged along the way. Both are upstream of almost every other conversation about sperm health.

If a man can only change two things about his diet, these are the two.

The takeaway

The most useful thing I took from my conversation with Brooke is how simple the foundation is. If a man wants to start somewhere with nutrition and fertility, the starting point isn't a protocol or a detox. It's one gram of protein per pound of body weight, from sources that actually lived well, and a plate that has color on it.

Everything else is a refinement.

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*This post reflects conversations from the Our TIES podcast and is intended for general informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment recommendation, and it should not be used as a substitute for professional medical guidance. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider about any health condition, including questions related to fertility. Quotes from Brooke Boskovich have been lightly edited for readability,  the meaning remains the same.

Community notes

• Morphology refers to the shape of sperm. Well-formed sperm tend to function better; high rates of abnormal morphology are one of the parameters used in a standard semen analysis.

• Motility refers to how sperm move. Poor motility makes it harder for sperm to reach and fertilize an egg.

• Oxidative stress is a normal byproduct of metabolism in which unstable molecules can damage cells, including sperm. Antioxidants are the body's primary defense against this damage.

• The one-gram-per-pound-of-body-weight protein target is a common recommendation in functional medicine and sports nutrition. It is higher than the RDA set by mainstream public health bodies, which typically recommends around 0.36 grams per pound for sedentary adults. There is active debate among nutrition researchers about optimal protein intake, particularly for men of reproductive age; Brooke's recommendation reflects a functional medicine approach.

• The nutrient differences between grass-fed and grain-fed beef are well documented (higher omega-3s, different fat profile), though the absolute differences are modest relative to overall dietary patterns. Brooke's point about animal sourcing affecting nutrient quality is supported by research; how much it matters for a given individual depends on overall diet.

• Brooke recommended against a vegan diet for preconception. Brooke's recommendation reflects her perspective from years of clinical practice, and it reflects concern about specific nutrient deficiencies (B12, omega-3s, heme iron, others) that are harder to obtain on a plant-only diet. Some registered dietitians and researchers disagree and believe well-planned vegan diets can support preconception health. This is an area with active debate.