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Highlights
- While no one food in isolation or eaten occasionally will cause ED, diet can be a factor in ED developing over time.
- Red meat, alcohol, salty foods, sugary foods, highly processed foods, and fried foods can all contribute to ED and are foods to avoid.
- ED can also be a warning sign of more serious health problems related to diet.
- Eating a diet high in leafy greens, vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and healthy fats can help reduce health problems and manage ED.
Erectile dysfunction rarely has just one cause, but a major contributing factor is your circulatory system. The penis needs blood to become and stay erect, so the less blood flow, the tougher it becomes to achieve a healthy erection. Learn what the worst foods for erectile dysfunction are, how your diet can affect your sexual health, what you can eat instead, and how to develop an ED friendly diet.
Diet and Erectile Dysfunction
Before we begin, we should be clear that eating the occasional cheeseburger or having an infrequent glass of wine isn’t going to lead to erectile dysfunction or any other medical consequences. There are no foods that cause erectile dysfunction if they’re only eaten on holidays.
Instead, what happens over time is that poor nutrition has an impact on your body. Diet, weight, and erectile function are connected, for good and for ill. The good news is that changing your diet can have positive effects. It won’t magically address every problem you have, but it can help to reverse erectile dysfunction naturally.
Conversely, the onset of ED can be an early warning sign of heart disease and other health conditions. If you’re experiencing ED, talk to your doctor as soon as you can for interventions and ways to manage it.
With that in mind, here are the foods to avoid with erectile dysfunction.
Red Meat
A steak every now and then probably won’t hurt you, but regular red meat intake may be a problem. A 2013 study, for example, showed increased mortality risk from chronic diseases among people who ate red meat regularly.
Specifically, red meat is high in saturated fat, which is a type of fatty acid that’s processed by the liver. But that filter can only handle so much, so if you eat more than your liver can handle, it simply goes into your blood as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL cholesterol. This is the stuff that can narrow arteries and cause health problems, including blocking blood flow to your penis.
High Sodium Foods
Sodium is a crucial nutrient for every animal, humans included. According to the FDA, we need about a teaspoon of table salt every day, which is pretty easy to get naturally from what we eat. The problem is when we consistently eat more sodium than we need.
Your body uses sodium to balance its overall water levels. Sodium draws water into the bloodstream, which can increase your blood pressure, and too much sodium is filtered out by the kidneys.
Consistently high levels of sodium put strain on your body, damaging the walls of your arteries and making it harder for your body to move blood. Excess salt can also cause kidney damage, meaning your sodium levels stay higher for longer.
All of which can add up to real problems in the bedroom.
Sugary Foods
Sugars themselves aren’t bad. Our body turns much of what we eat into different forms of sugar. The problem, again, is how much of the stuff we eat.
Sugar causes problems in a number of ways. One simple sugar, fructose, can raise the level of uric acid in the blood, for example, limiting your body’s natural production of nitric oxide (NO.) NO relaxes blood vessels, making it easier to get an erection. In fact, ED medication works by preventing NO from being removed from the body.
Sugar causes other problems, too. For example, high blood sugar means more insulin, which speeds up your heart rate and raises your blood pressure.
Alcohol
While there’s a lot of debate over just how much alcohol is too much alcohol, one point all researchers agree on is that too much alcohol is bad for your body, and it’s bad for your sex life in the long term.
One obvious method is that it can damage your liver, making it harder to get LDL cholesterol out of the body. Excessive alcohol over the long term can also damage the heart, causing circulatory issues.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should forgo a romantic glass of wine, but it does mean you should take stock of your alcohol consumption and cut back if you drink to excess.
Highly Processed Foods and Fried Foods
Finally we come to probably the biggest culprit, and, unfortunately, the foods that are easiest to get and cheapest to buy. Processed foods and fried foods tend to contain everything that’s bad for your sexual performance, in high amounts. In fact, many “diet” products simply replace the fat with sugar, so they’re not any better.
They’re also sold everywhere, are dirt cheap, and can sometimes be the only option (such as when eating on the run).
Diet as A Natural Remedy for Erectile Dysfunction
There is no official erectile dysfunction diet, but there are some guidelines. Not surprisingly, the best foods for erectile dysfunction are vegetables, and a lot of them, along with lean proteins and unsaturated fats. The most popular approach is the Mediterranean diet, but any diet that follows those general guidelines will be a good ED diet.
If you’re going to change your diet, talk to your doctor and see what they recommend. They may refer you to a dietitian to help you craft a diet that meets your individual needs.
- Order lean protein, like chicken and fish, when eating out. Skip the rich sauces.
- Check the nutrition labels of what you eat. Sugars and salt can be “hidden” in many foods, especially packaged ones.
- Look for snacks that are high in fiber and nutrients, such as unprocessed nuts and seeds.
- Avoid beating yourself up on the days where a burger is your only option. Nobody is perfect all the time, and what’s important is the decisions you make over the long term.
Start Treating ED Now With Prescription Medication
Changing to a healthier diet will have positive effects, but it will take time to notice them. For treating ED while in the meantime, choose erectile dysfunction medications that have been on the market for decades and proven safe and effective by the FDA.
eDrugstore can help you find the ED medication that’s right for you, with a free online medical consultation and shipping that sends your drugs right to your door. To learn more, visit our erectile dysfunction page today.
Disclaimer: This article provides general information about health and related topics but is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Dan is a long-time freelance writer focusing on technology, science, health, and medicine, with a lifelong interest in physics, biology, and medicine. His work has taken a particular focus on scientific studies “beyond the headlines,” reading the study to more closely examine the results.