Need a simple way to boost your sexual function? A new study indicates that simply adding two handfuls of nuts to your daily diet may help increase sexual desire and the quality of your orgasms.
Creating a study
A team of researchers from Spain looked at two sources of data—biomarkers in blood and questionnaires—to determine any improvements to sexual or erectile function. They studied 85 healthy men who were 18 to 35 years old. The men were all-consuming a Western-style diet, which is high in animal fat and low in fruits and veggies.
For the study, they had 43 of the men eat 60 g of mixed nuts daily and put the remaining 40 men in a control group. All 83 men continued consuming their Western-style diet for the 14 weeks of the trial.
In addition to blood samples, the men gave sperm samples, which were measured for nitric oxide levels and a molecule called E-selectin (which the researchers describe as “surrogated markers of erectile endothelial function”).
The results
The men who added mixed nuts to their diet demonstrated significant increases in sexual desire and orgasmic function. However, there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of:
- intercourse satisfaction
- erectile function scores
- overall satisfaction
- nitric oxide levels
- E-selectin
Still, because adding mixed nuts to a regular diet appeared to significantly improve auto-reported orgasmic function and sexual desire, the researchers believe a large-scale study would be beneficial. Additional findings could confirm the results of this study and help better understand why nuts appear to benefit sexual function.
The study was partially funded by a grant from the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council.
The results were reported in a paper featured in the journal
It’s important to note that there are many controllable factors that contribute to erectile dysfunction, including stress, excessive alcohol, smoking, an unhealthy diet, extra weight and too little exercise.
