Hey, a few notes for starters.
We’re not talking about extremes here: no food would strip you from all the manliness in a moment. Okay, maybe Starbucks Iced Coffee with double vanilla syrup will, but it’s a whole different matter.
Most food just negatively affects your Testosterone instead of eliminating it. We don’t live in a perfect world, so your natural Testosterone gets hit all the time by multiple factors. Stress can lower it, bad sleep schedule, how often you get laid, even air quality and pollution levels in your city are partly responsible for your Testosterone levels. The whole complex of adverse effects makes men more sensitive to minor factors, such as food. This is – sadly – why you need to avoid foods that kill Testosterone.
To understand how it works – you need to get the basics first. Here’s a little reminder:
What Is Testosterone
Testosterone is a primary male sex hormone. It’s produced in Leydig cells in your balls in tremendous amounts to give you all the perks of being a man. Testosterone is responsible for almost all aspects of your life, from facial hair to self-confidence. The full list includes:
- Libido;
- Erections;
- Energy and stamina;
- Muscle size;
- Body hair;
- RBC production;
- Mental health;
- Sperm count.
Some of your Testosterone binds to SHBG, some of it binds to Albumin, and most of the effects come from Free Testosterone – about 1,5% of the initially produced hormone.
In short, the higher your Free Testosterone levels are – the more you feel like a man.
Women also have Testosterone – but the ratio between Testosterone and primarily female sex hormone, Estrogen, is about 1 to 10. Men have Estrogen as well, but it’s naturally much lower than your Test.
What Food Lowers Testosterone In Men?
Most kinds of dangerous food don’t reduce your Testosterone directly. They boost other factors and start a cascade reaction that results in lowering your natural Testosterone levels.
Here they are, one by one, in line to be eliminated from your diet.
Almonds and Walnuts
Yeah-yeah, nuts are good for you, nuts are rich in all kinds of good fats, but not almonds or Walnuts. Fuck these nuts in particular. They can be the cheapest kind of nuts in most areas, but with all the positive factors – they also raise your SHBG.
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin is your body’s natural way of regulating hormonal levels. It’s a good thing in general, but when it grabs your Testosterone molecule – they’re bounded forever. There’s no way SHBG-bounded Testosterone will ever work in your body or give any of the positive effects.
In this study, the effect – even though it’s relatively mild – is proven to occur in women. Unfortunately, we don’t have any male studies yet.
Now, if you’re an athlete on gear and you run exogenous (aka injectable) Testosterone – you won’t feel any adverse effects. It’s not THAT powerful, after all.
If you’re a Low-T regular man, who’s already on the brink of deficiency, it’s better to stay away from almonds and get your fats from somewhere else. The last thing you want is more SHBG.
There’s an article that tries to claim the opposite, but their main arguments are cherry-picking the numbers and highlighting the fact that the study was about women. When you finish the blogpost, they try to sell you some shady Testosterone Booster with reviews like «THIS THING GAVE ME 250% TESTOSTERONE!».
You’re the one to decide, but I would take anything that comes from guys like these with a grain of salt. By the way, here’s our guide on Testosterone boosters and why herbal magic powder doesn’t work.
Calming Tea
The world is a stressful mess, but herbal tea will NOT save you from it.
Peppermint and other menthol herbs that are believed to be anti-stress can even make your hormonal situation worse.
Menthol is proven to lower Testosterone levels in female rats, and it works the same way with women. Spearmint and peppermint can affect your testosterone levels as well, but we just don’t know to which degree by now.
And yes, the urban legend about mint gum is real. Menthol is dirt-cheap, and it would be a bigger problem for gum manufacturers to recreate it than to take the real one. So yes, spearmint gum can affect your testosterone levels negatively. It won’t happen overnight, and you have to munch on multiple packs daily to get the effect, but in theory – it’s there.
Dairy
Cows are complicated, intelligent animals. They are not that far from some men on the intelligence scale. Yes, I’m talking about you, «I don’t need no PCT»-guys. Besides, hormonal levels in cows are almost as complex as human ones.
Cow milk contains an enormous amount of hormones. This is especially true if it’s milk from a pregnant cow (which takes over 75% of all the market).
The most dangerous thing for your testosterone levels is Estrogen – the female sex hormone. And dairy has ungodly amounts of it.
This study proves that dairy can significantly decrease your T, regardless of your age. If you think of alternatives – remember that almond milk is not an option, just like soy milk. And nope, chocolate milk is not an alternative as well. It’s the same damn cow milk with cocoa and sugar in it.
Other Foods That Kill Testosterone
Just dairy, peppermint, and nuts are not the whole list. Here’s a list of other, more obvious and well-known – or rare and not so popular foods that lower your T:
- Alcohol;
- Bread;
- Licorice;
- Too much Omega-6;
- Vegetable oil;
- Flaxseed;
- Trans fats;
- Fried food;
- Sugar.
The modern supermarket is a minefield for your natural Testosterone. And the worst part is that we don’t know THAT much about all the adverse effects of daily products. There’s a massive gap in the research.
Why are Testosterone Lowering Foods so rarely studied?
Almost all studies in this article are either about women or rats. Some are about female rats. You may wonder why.
We’re not lazy with the research – it’s just how science works. There are multiple reasons for that. And the first one – is expenses.
A full-scale study is an insanely expensive process. Most of the time, a double-blind study costs about 10-30 million dollars. Nobody wants to waste THAT much money on pure curiosity, with zero guarantees of a clear answer in the result.
That’s why most modern studies look for a solution to practical, real, and widespread issues. No scientists are interested in advertising or destroying a product’s reputation just for the sake of doing so.
There are so few studies on elevated Testosterone in healthy men because… nobody cares about it. High Testosterone levels in males, especially abnormally and dangerously high ones, are too rare. It’s not a big problem fr the medical world.
In women, even a slight elevation in Testosterone levels can be dangerous and life-threatening, especially with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), which has become a big problem in recent years.
MOST Testosterone studies are about women because they need this data more than men, and female testosterone levels are a real problem.
That’s why you won’t find a study on «Effects of herbal tea on testosterone levels in healthy men». It’s just not a problem at all.
Food That Does Not Really Lower Your Testosterone
It’s important to talk about the lack of high-quality studies because the absence of direct answers causes tons of pure BS and misconceptions on the Internet. Here are some widespread urban legends that are NOT true.
Beef Lowers Testosterone?
This is some vegan propaganda right here. Beef, in fact, boosts your natural testosterone production.
Not directly, though. You can get a ton of Zinc from ground beef, and it will have way better bioavailability than a box of breakfast cereal that screams ZINC on every side of the pack. Here’s a study that directly compares these two sources.
Bef is also a great source of Vitamins D and B-12, and iron. All these things are partly responsible for your natural testosterone production.
Unfortunately, a good steak will not solve all your problems. This study shows that vegans that avoid meat don’t have any Testosterone issues.
Soy kills Testosterone?
Again, despite all the popularity of a soyboy term – it doesn’t work like that.
Soy products don’t lower your Testosterone. They give you more Estrogen.
Phytoestrogen, to be precise. However, your body doesn’t see any difference. This study underlines the importance of MODERATE soy intake for male body health. Unless you plan to become a sexy femboy – Soy is one of the products you may need to stay away from.
So, in conclusion. All the food that threatens your natural Testosterone will be harmless if you keep your natural levels high with other factors. Sleep well, work out, get some fresh air from time to time and avoid Starbucks fancy drinks. That’s the road to high T, not just avoiding dairy at all costs.
