A press release describes a study that found a high fat meal (any kind of fat) lowers testosterone levels, while a high protein meal (egg white or whey) raises them over the following five hours. This goes against the usual advice I see on the Internet that you should "eat healthy fats" to raise your testosterone levels. The press release says:
The study is the first to identify that a diet high in any type of fat - including healthy mono-saturated fats such as olive oil - negatively impacts testosterone production over as little as five hours, yet one supplemented with egg whites, and to a lesser extent whey protein, can positively affect serum testosterone.
Lead researcher, Dr Karma Pearce, says the preliminary findings present controversial insights over the shorter five-hour term about the link between testosterone and 'healthy' monounsaturated fat, which is popularly considered to be a component of a healthy diet, including the Mediterranean dietary pattern.
"There's an assumption that 'good' fats and 'bad' fats perform as they're described - but what's surprising, is that it wasn't the type of fat that mattered at all, as an equal amount of the good and bad fats significantly suppressed testosterone production," Dr Pearce says.
While the researchers acknowledge they have tested individual nutrients and the effects may be different in the context of whole food dietary patterns, their earlier work has shown that 'Western diets' typified by fast food dietary pattern produced a 25 per cent decrease in serum testosterone within an hour of eating, with levels remaining suppressed below fasting baseline for up to four hours.
"In this study we also found that consuming albumen - the protein in egg whites - increased testosterone levels, and did so by four-fold relative to fasting, while albumin, combined with the bad saturated fat somewhat ameliorated the effect of the bad fats on testosterone levels, providing another diet-based influencer of testosterone levels."
The study tested eight diet protocols (meals comprising polyunsaturated fat; monounsaturated fat; refined carbohydrate (orange juice); whey; egg white; and mixed meals of polyunsaturated fat and refined carbohydrate; polyunsaturated fat and egg white; refined carbohydrate (orange juice) and egg white) with four blood tests/hormone analyses taken before eating and at every hour afterwards for five hours.
The study is the first to identify that a diet high in any type of fat - including healthy mono-saturated fats such as olive oil - negatively impacts testosterone production over as little as five hours, yet one supplemented with egg whites, and to a lesser extent whey protein, can positively affect serum testosterone.
Lead researcher, Dr Karma Pearce, says the preliminary findings present controversial insights over the shorter five-hour term about the link between testosterone and 'healthy' monounsaturated fat, which is popularly considered to be a component of a healthy diet, including the Mediterranean dietary pattern.
"There's an assumption that 'good' fats and 'bad' fats perform as they're described - but what's surprising, is that it wasn't the type of fat that mattered at all, as an equal amount of the good and bad fats significantly suppressed testosterone production," Dr Pearce says.
While the researchers acknowledge they have tested individual nutrients and the effects may be different in the context of whole food dietary patterns, their earlier work has shown that 'Western diets' typified by fast food dietary pattern produced a 25 per cent decrease in serum testosterone within an hour of eating, with levels remaining suppressed below fasting baseline for up to four hours.
"In this study we also found that consuming albumen - the protein in egg whites - increased testosterone levels, and did so by four-fold relative to fasting, while albumin, combined with the bad saturated fat somewhat ameliorated the effect of the bad fats on testosterone levels, providing another diet-based influencer of testosterone levels."
The study tested eight diet protocols (meals comprising polyunsaturated fat; monounsaturated fat; refined carbohydrate (orange juice); whey; egg white; and mixed meals of polyunsaturated fat and refined carbohydrate; polyunsaturated fat and egg white; refined carbohydrate (orange juice) and egg white) with four blood tests/hormone analyses taken before eating and at every hour afterwards for five hours.
