Tweet

Essential Foods For Every Dude

Testosterone is the male hormone needed for libido, muscle growth and to fight fatigue and stress. To give you a boost in any of these areas, add the following testosterone-boosting foods to your menu.

Grapes
Benefit: More active sperm.
Eat a bunch of red grapes daily to give your own low-hanging fruit a boost: The skins contain resveratrol, which makes for hardier sperm. Chinese researchers found the equivalent of 500mg -- the amount in 5g to 10g of grape skins -- was enough to raise testosterone levels and improve epididymal motility (that's your sperm's ability to swim).

Cabbage
Benefit: Flush out female hormones.
Cabbage is full of a indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which rids your blood of girlie hormones. Healthy men took 500mg daily for a week at Rockerfeller University in the US. Their oestrogen levels halved, making testosterone more effective. It's time to become more of a man at mealtimes.

Honey
Benefit: Improve blood flow.
For extra buzz in the bedroom, dip into honey. It contains the mineral boron, linked to high testosterone. Honey is also rich in nitric oxide. This is key in opening up blood vessels that create erections. Four teaspoons of honey can boost nitric oxide levels by 50 per cent.

Venison
Benefit: Boost muscle growth.
"A meat-free diet can lower testosterone by 14 per cent," says Dr Malcolm Carruthers of Harley Street Centre in the UK. "Lack of protein boosts testosterone-deactivating hormones." On the other hand, a University of Utah study in the US found a diet overly rich in the sat fats in beef and lamb can also make testosterone dip. The middle ground is venison.

Eggs
Benefit: Hormone boost.
We can't stress this enough: Eggs really do have a sunny side! "The yolk's cholestero is the precursor for testosterone," says clinical nutritionist Kim Pearson. Don't worry about your heart: a University of Connecticut study in the US found that subjects could eat three eggs a day without affecting their cholesterol levels.

advertisement