How Grains Affect Testosterone

I recently read a book called the Primal Blueprint which I’ve mentioned before on this blog which made everything about nutrition and exercise so extraordinarily obvious. There are so many “weight loss” programs out there that are short-lived, meaning they’re unsustainable as a lifestyle choice and people “yo yo” diet for as long as they live. What Mark Sisson presents in his book, The Primal Blueprint, is that the Standard American Diet (SAD) and indeed the diet in the Western world is playing havoc with our health. Our diet generally comprises far too many carbohydrates (refined and unrefined) sugar and grains. Grains were introduced to our diet 10,000 years ago and most people’s bodies haven’t adapted. Birds are meant to eat them, humans are not. How do grains affect testosterone? Not only do they cause inflammation and gut problems (with gluten found in wheat now often being dubbed a poison), but they are high Glycemic, meaning they trigger blood sugar spikes and therefore your pancrease secretes insulin response to extract the extra blood sugar from your blood. This has a knock on effect with a lot of other hormones. Check this out:

Insulin, cortisol, and the sex hormones estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and all the other hormones work in a symphony of interconnectedness. Usually, we only think of one hormone at a time. Thyroid symptoms indicate a thyroid problem. Blood sugar symptoms means there is an insulin problem. Symptoms around sexual function indicate a sex hormone problem. And high stress means a cortisol problem. We are told that if your thyroid hormone, or if your testosterone was normalized, you would feel fine, but the hormonal system really does not work like this. An enzyme system  found in the liver converts cholesterol into Pregnenelone, the top hormone in the hormonal cascade.  High levels of insulin will cause liver dysfunction which will prevent or severely impede this important conversion. Sex hormone binding globulins (SHBG) are produced by the liver as well.  As the  livers function is greatly impeded by insulin spikes the liver won’t be able to make enough SHBG.   Without SHBG, too much free estrogen is available creating high levels on estrogen in the body.

Read the whole article here

The beauty about removing grains from your diet is that it’s totally safe – you can get your carbohydrates from all sorts of fruits and vegetables and potatoes – sweet potatoes and yams preferably as they induce a much lower blood sugar response and therefore less Insulin. Eat plenty of green vegetables with each main meal – they’re are essential in your diet every day and they’re excellent at alkalising your body – which I won’t go into in this post. You can try this for one month and experience results very quickly – you’ll burn fat without thinking about it and have far more energy – I dare you to try it!

Check out this site to get your hormones tested simply by providing saliva samples. Do this at Day 1, then again at Day 30. I’d love to know your results!