(Oysters and Erections, written by David Jaynes)
Okay. This one isn’t exactly news.
Folks have been eating oysters as an aphrodisiac for a really long time.
This all started back in the days of the “Doctrine of Signatures,”…
An idea from back in the day when people assumed every plant and animal was custom made by a higher being.
The idea was that the higher being designed plants and animals in shapes that gave us a hint about how they might be useful to us.
A plant with a flower like an eye would help with vision. Birds, because they flew, might help with breathing problems.
And anything shaped like a dong or a vagina would help with fertility, libido, erections, and anything else related to sex and marital bliss.
Oysters on the half shell look a bit like a vagina, but both clams and oysters in the wild underwater look a lot like one.
And so early naturalists assumed that meant they’d make people horny.
Fast-forward to now, and it turns out they were — through no fault of their own — right. Oysters do a lot of stuff to help put and keep lead in the old pencil.
Let’s take a look at exactly how.
Oysters Contain Erection Boosting Nutrients
At the simplest level, oysters carry a lot of the nutrients you need for optimal sexual health and erectile function.
These include:
- Zinc, an important building block for your production of testosterone
- B6, which increases healthy blood flow and improves nerve sensitivity
- Magnesium, for metabolizing nitric oxide (itself vital to the blood flow that makes erections happen)
- Selenium, a mineral that helps with semen quality and sperm health
- Vitamin C, which improves blood flow
- Iron, for improved oxygen content in the blood
- Omega 3 Fatty Acids that help both with blood flow and tissue elasticity
Oysters also contain a lot of vitamin D….
Modern research hasn’t yet established exactly why vitamin D is helpful for erections, but it has conclusively linked vitamin D deficiency with high likelihood of erectile dysfunction.
We do know more vitamin D also helps with testosterone, so that’s a good hint.
Bottom line: these guys are basically a multivitamin for erectile health.
Oysters Boost Testosterone Levels
Besides the direct impacts on erectile health, oysters boost your testosterone.
If you’re interested enough in men’s sexual health to be reading this article, I don’t have to explain to you that testosterone is hugely important to your libido and erectile function. It’s core to both wanting to and being able to have sex.
And oysters boost your body’s testosterone levels through their content of zinc.
Kind of like Vitamin D and erections, we understand that zinc is important for testosterone, though we’re not entirely certain why. A 2007 study at German Sport University in Cologne found an increase in testosterone levels among subjects who took daily zinc supplements.
Other studies conducted on elite cyclists and football players found similar results.
And the benefits to your testosterone don’t stop there. The zinc in oysters helps with endurance and energy, and it also boosts your immunity.
All three of these things help you be able to and want to participate in activities which themselves have been shown to naturally boost testosterone production.
Activities like:
- Power lifting, sprinting, and other high-intensity workouts
- Social interaction with friends and loved ones
- Focused success at work
- Walking, playing and moving your body outdoors.
Some of the zinc-testosterone research suggests that getting extra zinc only directly improves testosterone production in men with a zinc deficiency, but these other traits of extra zinc intake mean it may also boost beneficial hormones in men who get the recommended amount.
Oysters Contain D-Aspartic Acid
“Okay,” you’re saying right now, “I was with you so far. But what the heck is D-Aspartic Acid?”
I’m glad you asked.
D-Aspartic acid is an amino acid your body produces in your testes, pituitary glands, and hypothalamus. It’s strongly tied to testosterone production and sexual health, and has been prescribed for a while as a cure for low libido, low testosterone, and erectile dysfunction.
A 2009 study by Enzo Topo and team found that just 3.12 grams of D-Aspartic Acid daily was enough to boost testosterone by 40% after less than two weeks of treatment (source).
The same study found the subjects experienced a 33% higher production of luteinizing hormone. Luteinizing hormone is the hormone that “instructs” your Leydig Cells to produce testosterone.
All put together, it’s clear that D-Aspartic acid is important for healthy testosterone levels and strong erections.
And oysters are just full of the stuff. They produce it in quantity during mating season for their reproductive cycle.
Now, like with zinc, a number of studies found that the best benefits from supplementing DAA come in men who have a deficiency in the amino acid. Men with a normal intake of this basic building block will see diminishing returns from DAA supplementation.
Also like zinc, DAA is a necessary nutrient. It’s core to a variety of hormonal functions in your body, including several that help the systems indirectly related to erectile function.
Oysters and Erections-Conclusion:
The writing on this particular wall is pretty clear: oysters as a libido booster isn’t just an old legend like Spanish fly. It really can work.
But there are a few caveats…
First, eating raw oysters is delicious (and weirdly sexy) but carries all the health risks associated with eating raw meat of any kind.
Eating them too often, especially from a unreliable source, may be begging for a case of food poisoning, or something worse.
Second, most seafoods are starting to get sketchy when it comes to levels of mercury and other pollutants. Shellfish aren’t as bad as alpha predators like sharks and swordfish, but you definitely want to be careful in that department.
Put together, this means you’re not going to want to eat raw oysters every day of the week.
I recommend incorporating them into your diet a few times a month for the zinc, the aspartic acid and the overall benefits to your body.
