Paleo and Testosterone

I’ve just returned from Mammoth after a few days snowboarding. Lucky me. I got speaking with a ski instructor who’s 57 and when I was talking about this blog and accompanying program, and how it involves going grain-free, he told me he’d freed himself from grains for one year now. The results were astounding. For 43 years, he’d suffered from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and low energy levels, both mentally and physically. After quitting grains, his IBS disappeared, he has way more energy, higher libido, his eye sight has got better and he can think more clearly. He says he feels like a new man! How cool is that? Well, 43 years of suffering isn’t cool but to being revitalised by removing grains from his diet is pretty cool. He referred to his previous way of thinking as “grain brain”. He also said his aches in his joints had gone. Check this out from PaleoLeap.com:

Most “diets” involve eating a bunch of low-fat food and passing up thebutter. Unfortunately for dieters, study after study has proven that eating a bunch of low-fat, high-fiber “diet food” is a fantastic way to tank testosterone levels, especially if the fat you do eat is polyunsaturated (PUFA).

The solution: for the love of your own abs (or for the hope of seeing them!),just say no to low-fat dieting! Instead, eat plenty of the good fats.

• Saturated fat: it’s hard to tease out the effect of saturated fat specifically from the effects of total dietary fat. But some studies (likethis one) have observed associations between percent energy from saturated fat and resting testosterone concentrations, so the evidence is at least suggestive that there might be an effect. It’s also worth noting that vegetarians (who consume less fat and much less saturated fat) have lower testosterone levels than omnivores.
• Monounsaturated fat: This study found that olive oil and argan oil (both high in monounsaturated fat) increased testosterone levels in healthy young men.

There’s a huge amount of back-and-forth about whether saturated or monounsaturated fat is “better” for raising testosterone, but if you’re eating a solid Paleo diet, you should be getting enough of both to get the maximum benefit so it doesn’t really matter.

Read whole article on PaleoLeap.com

Try it for 30 days and see how you feel!