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How To Avoid Man Boobs By Eating Testosterone Boosting Foods

Testosterone is an essential male hormone responsible for making men, men! It’s actually the male sex hormone which belongs to a group of other crucial male sex hormones referred to as androgens.

This group also includes dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

Naturally increasing testosterone in your body requires a complete lifestyle overhaul, encompassing every aspect of your day-to-day life including your diet, stress levels, and sleep habits.

Changing nutrition habits and opting for testosterone foods can really help you elevate the level of this vital hormone in your body.

Why is Testosterone Essential for Men?

Although people are generally aware of the significant role that testosterone plays in both male and female physiology, not everyone is aware of its extract workings.

Just like the majority of the other hormones, testosterone also directly impacts a wide range of physiological processes.

Many of these processes can be observed on a daily basis, for instance, testosterone’s impact on libido, enabling the person to engage in positive and healthy sexual intercourse.

Testosterone also aids maintenance of optimum physique, ensuring that your muscles continue to develop, as you work hard in the gym.

Let’s go over some very important testosterone-impacted body functions, parts and conditions that make this hormone an absolute necessity for men:

1. Muscle Mass:

It’s no news that testosterone has vast potential to help increase strength and muscle mass in men. Its muscle building effects are primarily due to how it increases muscle protein synthesis in the body.

2 Libido or Sex Drive:

It’s common knowledge that testosterone is essentially a sex hormone.

Hence, the first signs of low testosterone in men often manifest in the form of erectile dysfunction and loss of libido or lower sex drive.

Testosterone is the primary hormone that serves as the driving force for human reproduction. That’s the reason why its levels are the highest during the adulthood years of men.

3. Bones:

Osteoporosis is a health problem often associated with women, but men also often face the wrath of this bone-weakening disease. In men, it is usually the low testosterone levels to blame for osteoporosis.

Studies have revealed that testosterone plays a significant role in bone health maintenance.

Regular supply of testosterone decreases the bone resorption and stimulates bone mineralization, thereby increasing the bone density.

Elderly men diagnosed with osteoporosis usually have low testosterone levels.

4. Body Fat Reduction:

Testosterone plays a significant role in fat metabolism, glucose and insulin regulation in the body.

It’s been clinically proven that our body’s natural ability to regulate these processes decreases with depletion of the testosterone levels.

This, in turn, causes accumulation of adipose tissues (fats) in different body parts.

It becomes a vicious circle with increased adipose tissue further depleting the testosterone levels, as it actively converts testosterone into estrogen in the body.

Research has revealed that the only way to break this vicious cycle is by somehow increasing the testosterone content in the body.

5. Central Nervous System:

It’s the job of the central nervous system to determine the extent of testosterone released into the bloodstream.

Any decrease in such release can impact a man’s behavior, leading to symptoms like dominance and aggression. Lowering of testosterone may also cause lethargy and low self-esteem.

6. Depression:

Low testosterone levels are also often associated with depression. Researchers have discovered that depressed men usually have low testosterone levels in their bodies.

Although scientists are yet to figure if it’s the depression that leads to low T levels or it’s the other way round, preliminary studies have shown that the studied men reported significant improvement in mood and other depression-related symptoms after undergoing doctor-supervised testosterone treatment.

7. Gynecomastia:

A possible result of low testosterone levels, gynecomastia or man boobs is something we’ll go into detail below. (For even more detailed information check our homepage).

Often depletion in testosterone levels can disrupt the hormonal balance of the body, leading to excessive estrogen production.

When that happens, a man may witness development of female like breast tissues in his chest area.
Hair and skin

Adequate testosterone levels in the body are also responsible for men’s transition into adulthood, contributing to the growth of hair on their genitals, armpits, chest, legs, and face.

Any decrease in testosterone levels in the body may, therefore, lead to loss of body hair.

Testosterone is also essential for men because of how it affects the endocrine system, aging, erections, cognitive abilities, behavioral changes, heart health and competitiveness in men.

How is Low Testosterone Level Related to Gynecomastia?

As mentioned earlier, depletion of testosterone levels in a man’s body can lead to a condition referred to as gynecomastia or male breast enlargement.

We all know that testosterone is a naturally occurring hormone in a man’s body and is responsible for various masculine features including male sex drive.

Any time there is an imbalance in estrogen and testosterone levels in the body, a man may experience the development of gynecomastia.

Testosterone levels typically decrease with age in men. The medical term for this phenomenon is hypogonadism.

As per Urology Care Foundation, one in every four men over 45 years of age has low testosterone levels in his body.

A man’s body naturally produces both estrogen and testosterone. However, the amount of estrogen in a man’s body usually is lower compared to testosterone.

Any time his testosterone content goes below estrogen, or there’s excessive estrogen production, he’s most likely to develop larger breasts.

When boys reach the puberty stage of their lives, they often undergo significant changes in the hormone activity in their bodies, often leading to gynecomastia.

However, such gynaecomastia resolves by itself with time, without the need of any treatment.

In such case, excessive breast tissues may spread equally over both the breasts, or either of the breasts.

Gynecomastia may also develop in senior men who witness a significant testosterone drop in their later years.

In fact, as per Mayo Clinic, almost every one in four men aged between 50 and 80 suffers from gynecomastia.

Although gynecomastia isn’t usually a life-threatening condition, in some instances it might lead to the formation of sore breast tissues.

There are different ways to combat gynecomastia like surgery, medications, exercises and dietary changes. Here, we are focusing on eating food that can boost your testosterone and diminish gynecomastia at the same time.

For more infomation about hormonal imbalances that can cause gyno check this article: nogyno.com/hormonal-causes-of-gynecomastia/

Which Foods can Help Increase Testosterone?

One of the highly effective ways in which you can naturally increase testosterone levels in your body is by eating foods that boost testosterone.

Following is a list of best testosterone boosting foods that can be easily had on a daily basis, along with an explanation why and how these foods can be of immense help in this regard:

Cruciferous Vegetables:

Why?

Eating cruciferous vegetables is important for keeping the body’ estrogen and testosterone levels in right balance.

Any time this balance tilts towards estrogen, it becomes clear that testosterone is getting converted or aromatized into estrogen, which can lead to gynecomastia.

How?

You must eat cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, watercress, sprouts, kale, bok choy, radishes and Brussels sprouts which are all considered foods good for testosterone.

These foods release a certain phytochemical upon their ingestion, which helps men’s body with estrogen metabolism.

Zinc-rich Food Items:

Why?

Studies carried out in Michigan, US proved that diet-related zinc restriction is often a cause of major decrease in the serum testosterone in normally-healthy men.

Zinc functions as an aromatase inhibitor in the body, thereby blocking the estrogen receptor sites.

As it is essential to optimize the estrogen-testosterone ratio in the body, consuming zinc rich food items can ensure that not a lot of testosterone gets converted into estrogen.

How?

Squash seeds, beef, oysters, lobster, cashews, clams, shellfish, lamb, spinach, pumpkin seeds, and crabs are all rich in zinc and can be termed as foods that increase testosterone.

Foods That are Best Sources of Omega-3s:

Why?

Stress and inflammation are closely linked and often make each other even worse. Anytime you witness chronic inflammation in your body, you’d also experience a corresponding increase in stress.

Whenever your body is unable to control the excessive production of cortisol, the stress hormone, it would sacrifice other vital hormones to help you respond to stress.

This is also referred to as pregnenolone steal.

As a result, the precursors that would have otherwise converted into estrogen and testosterone, convert into cortisol.

Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids can serve as anti-inflammatories and have also been proven to lower body stress.

The lowering of inflammation and stress causes lesser pregnenolone steal, facilitating increased testosterone production.

How?

Natural and commonly available testosterone boosting foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids (which can be quickly absorbed by the body) are mackerel, walnuts, sardines, and salmon.

Although certain foods contain excessive amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, for instance, chia seeds and flax seeds, they don’t have a very impressive DHA and EPA conversion rate.

Their conversion rate is only around 1%-5%, while the other omega-3s sources are more easily digested in the body.

Foods Rich in Selenium:

Why?

Apart from being an important trace mineral which people hardly get in their daily diet, selenium is also critical for male fertility as it plays an important role in testosterone production in the body.

In fact, both selenium and zinc have equal importance when it comes to testosterone levels and fertility in men.

How?

Shellfish, crab, liver and Brazil nuts are some of the good sources of selenium.

Foods Made Up of Monounsaturated and Saturated Fats:

Why?

It is advisable to consume more of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated omega-3 fats as eating polyunsaturated omega-6 fats causes body inflammation, which in turn can hamper testosterone production in the body.

How?

The best food sources of healthy dietary fat are organic coconut oil, pasture-raised meats, nuts, olive oil, grass-fed butter, pastured eggs and wild-caught fish.

All these serve as healthy fat sources and are also counted amongst foods to increase testosterone production in the body.

Cholesterol-rich Foods:

Why?

Every cell in the human body produces cholesterol as it’s extremely important for overall health. That’s also the reason why your body needs more and more of cholesterol.

Cholesterol for long has been given a very bad name owing to the wrong assumption that blood cholesterol and dietary cholesterol levels are associated with and contribute to all kinds of heart diseases.

However, if you look closely, you’d observe that this isn’t actually the case with a majority of world population.

Cholesterol is critical for testosterone production in the body and is also the precursor to various other stress/steroid hormones.

Other than that it is important for cell membrane health and bile production, facilitating easy breakdown and absorption of dietary fats.

How?

High HDL cholesterol levels are associated with high testosterone levels in the body.

Hence, foods like bacon and eggs should get back on your daily menu, apart from other important sources of healthy cholesterol such as shrimp, heavy cream, chicken liver, butter, beef liver, sardines, and beef.

These all can be termed as high testosterone foods.