Battling Testosterone Decline: Testosterone Boosting Foods

by Russ Klettke

All that talk about eating right that you’ve heard since second grade misses a Very Important Point. Eat the right foods (and exercise, and don’t drink too much) and you’ll be more of a man. We’re talking about testosterone, which when in decline can negatively affect muscle and bone mass, mood, energy and libido.

Time is inevitable. But there’s no need to help it along.

Eating right to support your man stuff is truly possible. Certain healthy foods with specific nutritional characteristics can stem the natural decline in testosterone levels that come with age. The peak of your testosterone levels is generally thought to occur in the early to mid-20s. But time isn’t an absolute determinant: you can stem the loss with smart nutrition and other lifestyle choices.

A little background: One battle affecting testosterone in a man’s body is estrogen – yup, we all have some of the female hormone in us; women have testosterone too, just in different proportions. Elderly men basically are overcome with estrogen, because in the end that hormone wins out. There’s a metaphor here but it does no good to dwell on it.

Testosterone production is assisted by ingesting a few things, as follows: zinc, cholesterol (yeah, some cholesterol converts to testosterone), fats, indole-3-carbinole and diallyldisulfide (a major volatile sulfur-containing compound in garlic). These testosterone-boosting nutrients are concentrated in certain foods:

Zinc: Oysters, enriched cereals, club soda, table salt, veal, escarole soup, crab, beans, lobster, beef, clams, lamb, endive, game meat (buffalo, deer), chicken heart, pork, bamboo shoots, Italian or Crimini mushrooms.

Cholesterol: Eggs WITH the yolk, cheese, red meat, soybean oil. One or two eggs a day is optimal.

Fats: Monounsaturated, from plant and fish sources, are important to balance against saturated fats, which are abundant in typical Western diets. So every time you have a beef burger, think about having nuts, seeds, olive oil and fish to balance it out elsewhere in the same day.

Indole-3- carbinole: This is a compound in cruciferous vegetables, a family which includes broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, bok choi and kale. Yes, cabbage.

Diallyldisulfide: This is in garlic and onions, the less cooked the better. The Journal of Nutrition reported a study (Yuriko Oi, et al., 2001) that backs this up. This research involved a cohort of rats that were fed beef alone while others received beef with garlic powder. The rats given garlic registered higher testosterone levels. One assumes they were less popular nonetheless because rats are not known to use mouthwash.

But note that too much of these foods, giving you a net-excess of calories beyond what you burn off, deposits fat on the body. Body fat itself produces estrogen, the enemy of cholesterol, and therefore would diminish your gains. Balance, variety and moderation rule once again.