You’re making me hungry STOP!
I did a lit search on almonds and testosterone on Medline to see if there was any recent research in this area. I found a few things.
First, almonds and other nuts are rich in the micromineral Boron which can increase the concentration of serum (blood) testosterone levels. Boron also plays an important regulatory role in the metabolism of calcium and blood minerals which improves the health of the bones.
Second, from the research done on the relationship between dietary fat and steroid hormone concentrations: total fat, saturated fat and monunsaturated fat are highly correlated to resting and post-exercise T concentrations. As mentioned already, Almonds are rich in mono fat and this would be a good reason for their ability to increase T levels.
The take home message from this is that nuts (almonds included) should be included in all strength and power athletes diets for their fat and mineral content in order to maintain and increase thier T levels. The biggest mistake bodybuilders and fitness guys and gals make is avoiding dietary fat all together. You should rather make a conscious decision to stay away from deep fried and baked foods, but then add nuts, fish oils, flax oil, eggs, and some animal fat (steaks and some pork) to maximize muscle gains by supporting your testosterone levels.
Gary… I think most of us are bored just like you… Looking for any excuse to type something on the forum.
LOL
Nothin but Love!
On a related note, I was recently told that peanuts are estrogenic. This was a surprise to me. Is anyone else aware of this, and is there some science to back it up?
Peanuts are a member of the pea family of plants. Soybeans and other beans are also a member of the pea family. I would guess that people reason that if soybeans are estrogenic then closely related plants like peanuts may also estrogenic.
I don’t know about peanuts being estrogenic, but I know a lot of people stay away from them, for good reasons. 1) Many people are morbidly allergic to peanuts. This means even if you aren’t allergic, there is a good chance they aren’t healthy for you, to some sub-clinical degree. 2) Peanuts are a rich source of aflatoxin, a highly carcinogenic substance. Cancer is something most of us want to avoid.
Some stores, at least around here where I live, keep them in produce. I had trouble finding them for a long time here until one day I just stumbled upon them while buying some fruit.
In the lit search I did there was some information about almonds, cashews, and peanuts having estrogenic properites. However, this was conducted in female mice with a genetic predisposition for breast cancer. So… I dont know how appliclable this is for human male and females.
I really dont think that the slight (if there actually is any) estrogenic effect of these nuts would be any reason to avoid them. Thier fat content benefits which in turn increases blood Test levels far outweigh the fact that they have some estrogenic properties in mice with breast cancer.
So Eat Those NUTS!!!
How about almond oil? Does it provide all/most of the benefits of almonds without the carbohydrates (would certainly seem so, from the monounsaturated standpoint)? Also, can good sources be found that have not been highly processed/degraded in super markets? I believe I saw almond oil in the store, but it had “mixed tocopherols” in the ingredients, having no idea what those are, I did not buy it; thoughts?
Bald Scholar: About the aflatoxin issue - this isn’t really a problem anymore. Peanuts are screened for it these days. T-mag wrote about this once in Reader Mail.
But, peanuts are the “least good” choice compared to other nuts because of the omega 3:6 ratio and alergy issues.