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Low Sex Drive: What Your Libido Knows Before You Do · No Forking Nonsense - The Nutritionist UK

• 0:00
  @paulthenutritionist: Hello, and welcome to another episode of No Forking Nonsense. And today, we're talking about something that most people probably wouldn't expect a nutritionist to talk about, and that is sex. Now your sex drive is directly impacted and influenced by what you put in your mouth. Now it's going to be very hard to not have many innuendos here. But what I mean by that is that if your nutrition is not as it should be, if your sleep is poor, if your energy is poor, if your cortisol, your stress hormone is really high, if you are under eating, which links back to Wednesday's podcast in terms of if you're on fat jabs and you're in a real big calorie deficit, if your cholesterol is shit, if your blood pressure is shit, all of these things will impact your sex drive.
• 0:55
  So I think it's really important that we cover this off. I often say when I'm working with men, as a man, and obviously there's a big trend about testosterone and do we have enough testosterone and testosterone replacement therapies, when actually the first place to start when it comes to you assessing your testosterone is how are the other key components that you can control functioning in your life. And if you are someone who is overweight and you know your diet isn't very good, you're not moving around very much, you're stressed, getting TRT is not going to fix the problem. And in fact, all that's happening is you're going to end up on TRT for a very long time. TRT should be the kind of final thing in the jigsaw.
• 1:40
  But nobody likes that because it's boring and it's the same with these fat jabs. People will do fat jabs because they're like, I'm overweight, I've tried everything and I just can't lose weight. No, you haven't. I guarantee you haven't. It's a separate conversation but it's infuriating that we just seem to want the easy way out.
• 1:57
  And the easy way out, inevitably, in the long term, does not work, as per Wednesday's pod. Regarding today's episode, sex, it s really important that you should, unless biologically there s anything going on or if you re post menopausal, etc, you should have a pretty consistent sex drive. If you are male, you should be waking up with an erection, if you are female, you should have a sex drive appropriately for your age and if you don't, then there are other things going on. And it s really important that we recognise that. It isn t acceptable to just go, nah, m not interested in it anymore.
• 2:43
  There s a reason for that and it s important that we explore that. So today s episode is about how that all links in terms of your nutrition and the foods you are eating and internally your general health. Now, I have had so many messages of late of people saying that I have improved their algorithm, you can do the same thing, just engage. Engage with my Instagram, engage with this podcast, just click buttons on information that is positive and is factual to show your algorithm that's what you're into. If your algorithm is still full of shite and morons who are telling you stuff and pushing loads of ads towards you and trying to sell you the next best supplement and collagen and, I don't know, testosterone replacement therapy, then you need to update your algorithm.
• 3:40
  And the best way to do that? Engage with only factual content like mine. Anyway, that's today's episode, it's on sex, sex sells. So I'm expecting this one to, do as well as the one on Wednesday, we got 55,000 downloads on Wednesday, which is pretty significant. If you have got any questions, let me know, hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 4:03
  At the end of this episode, I have got a question strategy. So stick around and I will catch up with you at the end of this. It is really important. We are talking about SEX, specifically why you might not be that bothered about it anymore and why it matters far more than most people realise because low sex drive is one of those things that kind of happen quietly. They pull it down to being tired, being busy, getting older, stress, kids, life And sometimes those things are genuinely a factor, but what almost nobody considers and what I want to talk about today is that what you re eating, how you re sleeping and how stressed you ve been for the last six months are directly, measurably, biologically connected to your sex drive.
• 4:54
  So the first place that I want to start is your Libido. So imagine your body is a business and like any business, it has a budget. Energy comes in from food and it gets allocated to different departments. The most important departments get funded first. Keeping your heart beating, keeping your lungs working, keeping your immune system ticking over.
• 5:17
  These are all non negotiable and these get the money first. Right at the bottom of that list is your reproduction, so sex drive. That department only gets funded when everything else is covered. So when you are chronically under eating, overstressed, not sleeping and your nutrition is shite, which is a lot of you listening a lot of the time, your body looks at the budget and makes a decision. Reproduction is a luxury, survival isn and quietly without you noticing at first, it starts defunding the sex drive department.
• 5:48
  It s not a relationship thing and it s not that you are getting old, it is your body just trying to keep you alive. A review published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2019 confirmed that diet, quality, sleep and stress were among the strongest modifiable predictors of sexual dysfunction in both men and women. Not age, not medication, not how long you've been with your partner, sleep, stress. So if your sex drive has dropped, that is the warning light on your dashboard and the question is worth asking what has she got on under the bonnet? So now I want to talk about testosterone and why it matters for both men and women.
• 6:35
  So before women, you switch off, this is very important for you. Testosterone is often framed as a male hormone, but women, you produce it as well, just in smaller amounts, it plays a direct role in your libido, in energy, in mood and muscle maintenance in both sexes. And when it drops in anyone, you will feel it. And here s what most people don know average testosterone levels have been declining for decades, not in individuals, in literally the population. There was a major study in the 1980s and it tracked thousands of men over time and found that testosterone levels have been falling by 1% since 1980s, sorry it was in 2007, and the researchers didn t attribute this to ageing, they literally pointed it to lifestyle, environment and guess what, diet.
• 7:25
  So what does food have to do with testosterone? Let s start with fat. It's important to note here that your hormones are largely stored in your fat cells and that is why if you're nervous, you get butterflies. That's your biggest indicator that there is obviously that gut brain access there. But testosterone is a steroid hormone and steroid hormones are made from cholesterol, but no dietary fat, no cholesterol, no raw material to make that hormone, so it really is that simple.
• 7:55
  So people who aggressively cut fat to lose weight faster often report tanking in energy and have fucking no libido within weeks and they think that it s a calorie deficit and it is partly that but it s also the fact that they ve cut their hormonal production line by a fat. You need fat in your diet, Not all fat, not unlimited fat, but an adequate dietary fat is a non negotiable for your hormonal health. The other thing is zinc and zinc is directly involved in testosterone production. S also one of the most common micronutrient deficiencies in people who are restricted eating or on a repetitive diet, which is most people are trying to eat healthy. Now, there was a study that found that zinc supplementation in zinc deficient men significantly raised testosterone levels and you can get zinc in via food, so red meat, shellfish, particularly oysters, which is where they get that reputation of being an aphrodisiac.
• 8:52
  Less sexy, you can get pumpkin seeds and legumes as well. Vitamin D is another one because it behaves like a hormone rather than a vitamin in the body because it has receptors in the testes and ovaries. It is directly involved in sex hormone production, which is why if you go on holiday and sit in the sun, suddenly you feel a little bit free to. A randomised controlled trial published in Hormone and Metabolic Research paper showed that supplementing with vitamin D3 for twelve months led to significantly higher testosterone levels compared with a placebo. Most people in The UK are deficient in vitamin D for at least half a year.
• 9:31
  We don't get enough some. We don't get enough oily fish. And if you've listened to the supplement podcast, if you scroll down, I talk about the importance of probably supplementing with vitamin D3 at about four thousand international units. So for women, this is a different conversation, but just as important. For women, the relationship between nutrition and sexual health is at least as significant, to be honest.
• 9:52
  Here s a scenario I see repeatedly. A woman s eating well, by which I mean eating carefully. She s tracking, she s restricting, she s keeping her calories low, she s training hard, she feels like she s doing everything right, but she is on her ass, her mood is shit, she has no sex drive whatsoever, her periods are irregular or have stopped entirely and she cannot understand why because on paper, she s being disciplined. What is actually happening is that her body has interpreted the calorie restriction and the training load as a threat and it is responded by shutting down reproductive hormones. This is a documented physiological response.
• 10:33
  It's called relative energy deficiency, described extensively in research published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine as RED and it's the loss of libido as one of the earliest signs and it shows up before periods stop, before bone density drops, before anything else obvious. And the woman thinks she probably needs to try harder in this scenario and maybe eat less and train more, when actually, they often need to do the opposite. This does not mean that women should not train or manage their nutrition. It means that there is a floor below which energy availability can drop without serious hormonal consequences. And a lot of women are living below that floor without realising it.
• 11:19
  So the important one, sleep, and this is one that genuinely shocks people. The majority of daily testosterone production in men happens during sleep, not in the day, not in the gym, during sleep, specifically during REM sleep. So if your sleep is disrupted, shortened or shit, you are directly cutting into testosterone production every single night. One of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, JAMA, took healthy young men and restricted their sleep to five hours a night for one week. One week, five hours of sleep, and the result was a 10% to 15% reduction in testosterone in healthy young men in seven days.
• 11:59
  To put that in context, that s the equivalent of ageing roughly ten to fifteen years hormonally from one week of bad sleep. And yet people accept five to six hours as just what life is like right now. It s not nothing, it s directly eroding your hormonal health night after night. And here s where nutrition connects directly to this. Magnesium is one of the most critical minerals for sleep quality.
• 12:21
  I spoke about it previously on the supplement podcast because it helps regulate nervous system, supports melatonin production and helps the body transition into deep sleep. It also independently supports testosterone levels. So it s super important that you are getting enough magnesium because magnesium deficiency is extremely common. It s depleted by stress, by sweating, by alcohol, by a diet low in vegetables and whole grains and most people are running low on it without even realising. Foods high in magnesium dark, leafy veg, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, whole grains, even bananas, or magnesium glycin as a supplement in the evening, which is again, you can listen to in the supplement episode.
• 13:05
  So stress is chemically incompatible with sex drive, so your cortisol is your stress hormone and testosterone is share building blocks. Think of it like two factories on the same street competing for the same raw materials. When demand for cortisol goes up because you are stressed, under slept, under fuelled, overworked, the body prioritizes cortisol production, testosterone leads us out. This is sometimes called the cortisol steal and research published in the Hormones and Behaviour paper confirmed a direct inverse relationship between the two when cortisol goes up, testosterone tends to go down. Now think about what chronic stress actually looks like in daily life skipping meals because you re busy, eating badly because you re tired, drinking more than you should to decompress even though it doesn t help, sleeping less, training harder to compensate, undereating to try and lose weight faster, every single one of those things drives cortisol up and every single one of them is barefoot pushing testosterone and libido down.
• 14:07
  And here the thing that surprises people, skipping meals spikes cortisol. When blood sugars drop because you haven t eaten, your body releases cortisol to raise it. Do that repeatedly across the day, skip breakfast, work through lunch, eat everything in the evening and you have been running on elevated cortisol day after day, week after week. Regular consistent eating, even simple, nothing fancy, one of the most underrated things you can do for your stress hormone and by extension, your sex drive. So let's talk about foods that actually make a difference, so let's be practical.
• 14:42
  Mentioned oysters already but they are the highest dietary source of zinc on the planet. One serving can cover your entire daily requirement. The aphrodisiac reputation is not entirely nonsense because the zinc content is directly relevant to testosterone and dopamine production. They are also high in vitamin B12 and omega-three, so if you eat shellfish, eat your oysters. Eggs are genuinely one of the most nutritionally complete foods available, rich in cholesterol, the raw material for steroid hormones as well as vitamin D using choline and B vitamins.
• 15:17
  They were demonised for decades over cholesterol, but the science has moved on, the stigma hasn't quite caught up, so eat your eggs. Oily fish, salmon sardines, mackerel, trout, high in omega-three which reduces inflammation and chronic inflammation obviously directly suppresses testosterone production and there is also associations between omega-three intake and improved taurmania profile, so two-three servings of those a week. Dark leafy greens, spinach kale, rocket, these contain dietary nitrates, which convert to nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide dilates blood vessels and improves blood flow, which is important for men. Better circulation is directly relevant to your sexual function, but then in both sexes as well, this is actually part of the mechanism behind interventions for erectile dysfunction as well.
• 16:05
  It's like the food version but less dramatic. Pomegranate, this one is underrated. So a study published in endocrine abstracts gave participants pomegranate juice daily for two weeks, and their average salivary testosterone increased by 24%, mood improved, anxiety reduced. The researchers attribute it to the polyphenol content reducing oxidative stress in reproductive tissues. That one has a meaningful finding from a fruit juice, so drink your pomegranate juice.
• 16:38
  Brazil nuts, they are the richest dietary source of selenium, a mineral that supports testosterone production and sperm health, two to three nuts of those, that's it, easy. Then red meat if you eat it, so two to three times a week, obviously high in zinc, iron, B12, creatine, all supports testosterone and energy. So if you eat it, really good for hormonal health and is genuinely really useful. So what is actively killing your sex drive? First thing is alcohol.
• 17:08
  In the short term, it obviously reduces inhibition, so people associate it with sex. In reality, alcohol reduces testosterone, disrupts sleep architecture, increases oestrogen in men by activating aromatase and impairs sexual performance directly. Chronic daily drinking consistently suppresses testosterone and sexual function. The odd drink is unlikely to be an issue, making it a regular habit at will. Chronic undereating, as I said, there is no hormonal health.
• 17:36
  Without adequate energy intake, the body requires a calorie surplus or at very minimum adequate calories to maintain hormonal production. Substantial fat loss requires periods of eating at maintenance. It is not a character weakness to eat enough, it is literally a requirement. Ultra processed foods, I don want to go too deep on this, but high in inflammatory seed oils, low in micronutrients and actively damaging the gut microbiome, the gut produces and regulates hormones, including oestrogen, so a diet built heavily, and I am going to say that word again, heavily on ultra processed foods, is a diet built against hormone health. Not because one packet of biscuits is a problem but because when it s the foundation of daily eating, the cumulative effect is obviously quite significant.
• 18:29
  And then poor sleep, already covered but worth kind of re emphasising, five to six hours of sleep is not a badge of honour, it is testosterone suppressing, cortisol elevate and libido destroy and habit. It compounds and it's one of the easiest things to change if you decide it's priority. Hope you enjoyed that episode on sex and you found it really helpful that you've taken the most important points from this and I guess the consistency of my episodes are it isn't okay to just accept that the way things are when you know probably they are not right, to just go oh that's just the way it is, it's my age. It isn't your age. I think by now or today, Friday the twenty third, when you re listening to this, there will be a social media post this evening of me reacting to a 90 year old or 85 year old 100 ms race.
• 19:35
  These men are 85 and they are running 100 ms. Now, if you are just going to sit there and accept that the reason why you are why you are is because you are old or it's your age or it's just the way it is, you are effectively just accepting that there is no point, you're giving up. And if you give up, there's only one way things are gonna go for you, and it's worth exploring that. Anyway, quick message before you go, so they ve got a question for you. So, if you manage a team or you work in HR or you run a business and you know your staff are constantly fighting that afternoon energy sump, or they are falling for junk social media, food, fads.
• 20:26
  I am opening up a few slots in the next few months, either this quarter or next quarter, to bring no forking nonsense directly into your workplace with a blunt 45 virtual lunch and learn. So obviously, the thing that I pride myself on is not pushing to you guys any corporate sponsorship. You will notice there are absolutely no ads on this podcast despite I played around with Gemini the other day, Google Gemini, and it said that because of the amount of listeners I've got, I am making $4.5 a month in ad revenue. There are no ads. I wish I was making $4.5 a month on this podcast, but I still hold myself, pride myself in not throwing ads at you.
• 21:22
  So I hope you appreciate that. However, I am offering a, as I say, workplace virtual lunch and learns, which will be just pure science backed strategies to help your team feel human and stay sharp. I did this last year and it was, I really liked it. I did it to a, to a few, I don't know how this ended up happening but I ended up in the construction world and I did loads of talks for people who worked in construction and what I loved was how many people came into it sceptical and it was about energy and how to get the most out of your day and how to just feel more human and to stay sharp and to not be falling at a CPU desk at 02:00, and I really enjoyed it. So I m opening it up again.
• 22:12
  So if you want to bring this to your company, send me a message, paulthenutritionistuk dot com, that s paulthenutritionistuk dot com, just send me a message, tell me that you re interested in it and I send you over what the pack looks like and we can get you absolutely, I will present for you. But it s something I really enjoyed, it all virtual so it doesn matter where you are in the country. The reason I have those two virtuals is because A) I can t be asked to go in the car and it s just tiring, but also it means that we can t record it, whereas I like to have records and also people in person are less likely to ask questions, whereas when we do it virtual, we ve got the chat box and it s just much more enjoyable. So if you want a no nonsense directly into your workplace, forty five minute virtual lunch and learns, it doesn't have to be at lunchtime, just has a good vibe. Send me a message, paulthenutritionistuk dot com.
• 23:12
  I will put that email address the top because most people can't spell nutritionist right, or you can message me on Instagram, I get a lot of Instagram messages so it might get lost, but if you would like me to present at your workplace, please do send me a message and I will put that together for you. Any questions, let me know and I shall speak to you on Wednesday. Ciao.