Pesticide Exposure and Hypospadias Birth Defects in Vegetarians

Kristine Dennis PhD, MPH · ·
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What role do vegetarian diets and organic foods play in the prevention or promotion of a birth defect called hypospadias?

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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

I’m excited to introduce Dr. Kristine Dennis, our Senior Research Scientist, who has been researching and scripting new video topics, and as you will hear today, narrating some of the videos she has written. In this video, Kristine delves into the association of vegetarian diets and hypospadias birth defects to see if it holds up in the light of new research.

In 2000, a study found that a vegetarian diet during pregnancy was associated with hypospadias, a specific birth defect of the penis. The authors suggested that it may be due to the greater exposure to phytoestrogens, which are found in soy foods. But if you look globally, while there is an extraordinarily high prevalence in North America and Europe, it’s extremely low in a country like Japan, which has the highest per capita soy intake in the world. In fact, in Japan, a low maternal intake of soy phytoestrogens has been associated with elevated risk of hypospadias, so if anything, soy may be protective.

If soy foods aren’t the hormone disrupters, what in a vegetarian diet might be? Well, occupational exposure to pesticides is associated with higher risk, so might low-level pesticide exposure among those eating more fruits and vegetables—like vegetarians—help explain it? If you randomize people to a more plant-based Mediterranean diet, you see a large increase in the amount of pesticides flowing through their body, though, of course, if you put them on a Mediterranean diet with organic fruits and vegetables, you see a 90 percent drop in pesticide exposure.

So, does organic food consumption during pregnancy reduce hypospadias risk? Apparently so, cutting the odds about in half––particularly when it comes to choosing organic vegetables and dairy, though the only other study to look at organic food choices and hypospadias found the risk associated just with conventional high-fat dairy products.

It isn’t all or nothing. Even if only two-thirds of your produce is organic, that can significantly reduce pesticide exposure. But the benefits of consuming conventionally grown produce likely outweigh any possible risks from pesticide exposure, so concerns over ingesting pesticides should never discourage fruit and vegetable intake. In the United States alone, if you add up all of the fatal cancers, strokes, heart attacks, and other deaths that could have been averted simply by eating more fruits and vegetables, it comes out to nearly 450,000 deaths every year. That’s how powerful produce can be. But might one of the downsides be this hypospadias risk?

Despite their high plant consumption, vegetarians may be less exposed to conventional pesticides, but that’s because of their greater propensity to choose organic produce. Now the researchers only considered the pesticides in plant foods, not animal products, and even for conventional insecticides, animal products are main contributors to exposure. Additionally, persistent pesticides, such as organochlorine pesticides like DDT, are concentrated in fish, other meats, and dairy, so it’s no surprise that the blood of strictly plant-based eaters ends up significantly less polluted. It may not just be from the lower level of intake, though; high-fiber diets can bulk up the stool and glom on to pesticides and flush them away.

In the end, the hypospadias issue may be another example of the stroke scare. Dr. Greger did a whole series covering potential explanations why a study had found higher stroke rates among vegetarians, but then half a dozen other studies found lower rates of stroke, if anything, across the board.

The original hypospadias study looked at about 50 cases. Twelve years later, a study that looked at 1,250 cases was published, and found zero increased risk among vegetarian mothers.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

I’m excited to introduce Dr. Kristine Dennis, our Senior Research Scientist, who has been researching and scripting new video topics, and as you will hear today, narrating some of the videos she has written. In this video, Kristine delves into the association of vegetarian diets and hypospadias birth defects to see if it holds up in the light of new research.

In 2000, a study found that a vegetarian diet during pregnancy was associated with hypospadias, a specific birth defect of the penis. The authors suggested that it may be due to the greater exposure to phytoestrogens, which are found in soy foods. But if you look globally, while there is an extraordinarily high prevalence in North America and Europe, it’s extremely low in a country like Japan, which has the highest per capita soy intake in the world. In fact, in Japan, a low maternal intake of soy phytoestrogens has been associated with elevated risk of hypospadias, so if anything, soy may be protective.

If soy foods aren’t the hormone disrupters, what in a vegetarian diet might be? Well, occupational exposure to pesticides is associated with higher risk, so might low-level pesticide exposure among those eating more fruits and vegetables—like vegetarians—help explain it? If you randomize people to a more plant-based Mediterranean diet, you see a large increase in the amount of pesticides flowing through their body, though, of course, if you put them on a Mediterranean diet with organic fruits and vegetables, you see a 90 percent drop in pesticide exposure.

So, does organic food consumption during pregnancy reduce hypospadias risk? Apparently so, cutting the odds about in half––particularly when it comes to choosing organic vegetables and dairy, though the only other study to look at organic food choices and hypospadias found the risk associated just with conventional high-fat dairy products.

It isn’t all or nothing. Even if only two-thirds of your produce is organic, that can significantly reduce pesticide exposure. But the benefits of consuming conventionally grown produce likely outweigh any possible risks from pesticide exposure, so concerns over ingesting pesticides should never discourage fruit and vegetable intake. In the United States alone, if you add up all of the fatal cancers, strokes, heart attacks, and other deaths that could have been averted simply by eating more fruits and vegetables, it comes out to nearly 450,000 deaths every year. That’s how powerful produce can be. But might one of the downsides be this hypospadias risk?

Despite their high plant consumption, vegetarians may be less exposed to conventional pesticides, but that’s because of their greater propensity to choose organic produce. Now the researchers only considered the pesticides in plant foods, not animal products, and even for conventional insecticides, animal products are main contributors to exposure. Additionally, persistent pesticides, such as organochlorine pesticides like DDT, are concentrated in fish, other meats, and dairy, so it’s no surprise that the blood of strictly plant-based eaters ends up significantly less polluted. It may not just be from the lower level of intake, though; high-fiber diets can bulk up the stool and glom on to pesticides and flush them away.

In the end, the hypospadias issue may be another example of the stroke scare. Dr. Greger did a whole series covering potential explanations why a study had found higher stroke rates among vegetarians, but then half a dozen other studies found lower rates of stroke, if anything, across the board.

The original hypospadias study looked at about 50 cases. Twelve years later, a study that looked at 1,250 cases was published, and found zero increased risk among vegetarian mothers.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Doctor's Note

This video was scripted and narrated by our Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Kristine Dennis.

For more on food during pregnancy, see:

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