Wellness

Foods That Could Ruin Your Testosterone Levels

posted by Chris Valentine

For every single on of us, man or woman, maintaining a good hormone balance is essential to health.

Men in particular are affected by changes to their testosterone levels. Whether it’s lifestyle or simply aging, there are a huge range of things that can have an impact on your ability to produce the right hormones.

But, by ensuring you’re avoiding the foods that could impact your testosterone production, you could improve your overall health, vitality and physical fitness.

To ensure you can support your hormones as best you can, we’ve listed out all the foods you should be avoiding. Check it out. 

Flaxseed

This may boast plenty of vitamins, minerals and fiber, but it’s a killer when it comes to testosterone. 

Flaxseeds are estrogenic, which means they help to inhibit testosterone and promote estrogen. There are compounds within this food called lignans, which change the way you metabolize the female hormone. 

Lignans act like endogenous estrogen, by blocking testosterone so the female hormone has the opportunity to develop. 

These two hormones kind of counteract each other, so if your testosterone can’t protect against estrogen, then it will rise, and your male hormone will begin to drop. 

Alcohol

We all know a few glasses of wine or bottles of beer is fine, but when it becomes regular binge drinking, alcohol does way more than give you a hangover. There are a huge range of health complications that come with the drink, and one you may not realize is the impact it has on your testosterone. 

One study showed that men who went binge drinking saw significantly suppressed testosterone levels for hours after. 

It can also ruin your sleep, which lowers testosterone and can even make it harder to recover from workouts. 

All of this contributes to a lower testosterone level, which is why so many men who drink regularly lose their muscle mass and develop gynecomastia or man boobs. 

Hops

We know this is found in alcohol, but it has such a powerful effect on your hormone levels that we had to include it in a separate section. 

Hops, found in India pale ales and a range of beers, are very estrogenic. They contain phytoestrogen compounds, which can play havoc with the hormone levels of both men and women. 

So much so, that women who work in the hop fields have to wear specific protective clothing to stop them interfering with their menstrual cycle. 

As you can imagine, this can have a negative effect on men’s testosterone levels. 

Licorice 

This well-known sweet has a surprising effect on your hormone production. 

Licorice is high in an active ingredient called glycyrrhizin, a compound which is also common in herbal teas, medicines and cough mixtures. 

Despite the sweet’s popularity, this compound is responsible for some really significant reductions in testosterone. One study showed a decrease of 40% when participants took licorice root.

The damaging compound within licorice is thought to interfere with a key enzyme that plays an essential role in the synthesis of new testosterone. By inhibiting the production process, you’ll experience much lower hormone levels. 

Trans Fats

Most of us are very aware of the dangers of trans fats. They’re bad for your heart and can lead to a number of health issues if you eat too much. 

Unfortunately, the problems they cause also extend to your testosterone production. 

Trans fats are a type of fat produced in factories by adding hydrogen to liquid fats in order to turn it into a solid. These are used in the fast food industry to make cakes, biscuits and even burgers because it’s a cheap alternative that increased the shelf life of products. 

Needless to say, these unnatural foods are terrible for your health and have been shown to cause inflammation throughout the body and lead to serious illnesses like heart disease.

In excessive amounts, these trans fats have been proven to lower testosterone. This is because they reduce the amount of healthy cholesterol you have your system. Good cholesterol is a key building block of testosterone, so without enough of it to spare, you won’t be able to create enough of the male hormone. 

Conclusion

Testosterone is so important to men’s health, without it you could suffer from a range of problems, like low muscle mass, gynecomastia, low mood and even depression.

With so much on the line, it’s key you aim to protect and preserve your hormone levels as much as possible.

A great way to do this is to cut out the foods that could damage your ability to produce testosterone. You may not even realize these foods are causing this affect your body, but the sooner you can avoid them, the better your hormone production will be. 

So, before you head out for an India pale ale, or tuck into that mass produced cake, think twice and consider your hormone levels first. 

If you’re looking for a little extra support, and want to ensure you’re taking on all the essential nutrients your body needs for healthy testosterone production, check out this list of the best testosterone boosters: https://bestsupplements2019.com/best-testosterone-boosters/

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