The trouble with many health foods is, they kind of suck. There’s just so much blue-green algae, fauxburgers, and sprouts a man can eat before he goes a little crazy.
But nuts…nuts are something you eat on purpose. You scarf them down during ball games, nibble on them at bars, crack them for the holidays. Nuts are good.
And they’re good for your erections. Here are five different ways these tasty treats tickle your testes until your tumescence returns.
Pistachios Fire Up Erections
Most of what you’ll read below is an indirect connection between nuts and erectile health. Nuts do thing A, and thing A helps with erections, so nuts help with erections.
But one study, published in 2011 in the International Journal of Impotence Research (1) just gave men pistachios and checked out what happened with their erections.
The patients, who suffered from ED for at least a year prior to the study, saw improvement in erectile health just three weeks into the study.
The study also found a corresponding improvement in cholesterol levels. The bad stuff (LDLs and triglycerides) went down. The good stuff (HDL) went up.
This suggests a reason for the improvement in erectile health because cardiovascular health and erectile function are strongly linked (see below).
Nuts Contain L-Arginine
Nuts are rich in the amino acid L-Arginine, delivering a daily dose in just one snack worth.
Black walnuts and almonds have the highest concentration (about 1,100 mg per quarter-cup), with brazil nuts, English walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, and cashews also delivering significant amounts.
Okay, so why does that matter?
L-Arginine is one of the basic building blocks your body uses to make nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is one of the main chemical factors in blood flow to your member when you become aroused.
The more nitric oxide, the better your erection works. The more L-Arginine available, the more nitric oxide your body can produce.
Nuts Improve Cardiovascular Health
Remember how I mentioned earlier that blood flow is important to your erectile health? I mean, it makes sense. Erections come from blood flowing into your unit. Bad blood flow interferes with that.
So it should come as no surprise that anything bad for your circulatory health is bad for your boners…and anything good for your heart is good for your hard-ons.
Nuts, I’m pleased to announce deliver a wide variety of substances which can directly and indirectly improve your heart health (2):
- Dietary fiber, which lowers LDL cholesterol, and may help you resist developing diabetes.
- Plant sterols, which also lower LDL cholesterol.
- Omega-3 fatty acids, which help to regulate heart rhythms and may reduce your risk for a heart attack (3).
- Vitamin E, which slows (and may even reverse) the development of arterial plaques.
Although some people suggest taking nut oils to help with health, I recommend against it. That fiber at the top of the list only comes if you eat the nuts whole.
Nuts are High in Vitamin E
Vitamin E doesn’t just help your erectile health by improving cardiovascular function. It directly impacts your ability to get hard in two important ways.
This important vitamin both reduces your ability to produce estrogen, and its ability to use and receive what you do produce.
The reduced estrogen comes with a corresponding increase in testosterone, which as you know improves your sexual health (4).
Secondly, Vitamin E lowers prolactin (5)…
Prolactin is a hormone most present in women who are breastfeeding…
A little of it is supposed to be in your system, but even a little extra can seriously reduce your sex drive.
A related advantage of nuts is that other sources of vitamin E (like soy products) are also estrogenic.
That makes them a mixed blessing from a testosterone point of view. But nuts give you the benefits of the good E (vitamin e) without pumping up your estrogen.
Nuts Extend Lifespan
Here’s an exciting study. Well, part of a study.
The Nurses Health Study and Physicians Health Study, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health spent years going over the health and lifestyle details of a whopping 120,000 participants.
This huge study of medical professionals taught us enormous amounts about how diet and lifestyle impact health (6).
Among the things they discovered was that nut-eaters were 20% less likely to have died in any given year than those who don’t eat nuts.
Now, lifespan isn’t directly related to erectile health. If you have catastrophic erectile dysfunction and live a long time, you just spend that many more years without getting laid.
But age-related erectile dysfunction is the most common cause of ED.
Arteries harden, restricting blood flow. Testosterone production drops, and with it libido and production of key erection chemicals drop as well.
Anything that slows or reverses aging also slows or reverses the processes responsible for age-related erectile dysfunction.
So extended lifespan is indirectly good for your erectile health, along with all the rest of your health.
Eating Nuts For Stronger Erections-Conclusion
“Eat some nuts, dude” is usually something you hear just before either getting punched or punching somebody…but this is a special case.
A handful a day should do you, delivering all five of the benefits above in a convenient, tasty snack. But don’t go crazy. Eat just a handful or so for two reasons.
First, nuts are really high in calories…
They trick you because they’re so compact and salty, but you can easily overeat and gain weight.
Being overweight reduces testosterone, and thus can interfere with your erectile health at the same time the nuts are helping.
Second, nuts are high in N6 fats. Although in small doses, their cardiovascular benefits outweigh the damage N6 fats do to your arteries, the tipping point comes pretty fast.
Bottom line: Eat nuts, but in moderation gentlemen.
References:
- https://www.nature.com/articles/ijir201033
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/in-depth/nuts/art-20046635
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4810342/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6816576
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/039139889201501105
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-nuts-linked-to-healthier-longer-life-201311206893
