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If you have plans to be a father, you might want to add Walnuts to your diet. 

Researchers have found that eating 2.5 ounces of walnuts a day, around two handfuls, for 12 weeks improved sperm quality in healthy young men. 

The study is published in the journal Biology of Reproduction.

The study included 117 men between 21 and 35 years old who ate a typical Western diet. The group was divided into two with one group adding 2.5 ounces of walnuts a day to their usual diet. The other group continued their regular diet with no nuts. 

Researchers said they found a significant improvement in sperm parameters in the group that consumed the walnuts.

"Walnuts provide a particularly rich source of a-linolenic acid, a natural plant source of omega-3, which we suspect may have been responsible for the improvements we observed," said Catherine Carpenter, co-author of the study. 

Previous studies had indicated that 75 grams of walnuts would be a dose at which blood lipid levels would change, but at which healthy young men would not gain weight. 

Approximately 70 million couples experience subfertility or infertility worldwide, with 30 to 50 percent of these cases attributable to the male partner. Some studies have suggested that human semen quality has declined in industrialized nations, possibly due to pollution, poor lifestyle habits, and/or an increasingly Western-style diet.

Researches analyzed the men's semen at 12 week intervals. After 12 weeks, the team found no significant changes in body-mass index, body weight, or activity level in either group. 

Researchers found that consuming walnuts had significantly increased levels of omega-6 and omega-3 (ALA) fatty acids and experienced improvement in sperm vitality, motility, and morphology. Those eating walnuts also had fewer chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm following the walnut dietary intervention. The control group, on the other hand, experienced no changes. 

Researchers said that although the findings suggest that walnuts have postifve effects on a young man's sperm quality, it is still unknown whether the benefits would apply to young men with fertility problems and whether they would actually translate into increased fertility.