Not many things might seem more manly than eating meat and drinking beer. But when it comes to frequent and hard erections, meat and beer are simply not the way to go. Various studies have shown that there are quite some other foods, however, that function as natural Viagra (1)! Here is what they are and how they improve your erectile function.
Nitrates: the natural Viagra
For good erectile function an adequate blood flow is essential. Nitric oxide is the key to widening your arteries anywhere in your body, including your penis. In this, nitric oxide has the same effect as Viagra: Viagra allows your blood vessels to dilate, which encourages blood flow into the penis. Viagra has side effects, however, and its effectivity decreases with more use, since your body’s receptors get used to it. The nitric oxide does not have these down sides. Our bodies can make nitric oxide from nitrates in your food (2). You definitely want to make sure you include some nitrate rich foods in your diet! Foods that are full of them are beetroots, carrots, spinach, cabbage, and radishes.
Improving your erection with a Mediterranean diet
The part of our bodies that enables nitrates to be converted into nitric oxide is the endolethium, the cells that line all our arteries (3). In addition to eating nitrate rich foods, you might want to support your endolethium to optimize your erectile function. A Mediterranean diet has proven to be beneficial (1): sparing in meat and rich in fruit, vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts and wholegrains. A diet that is rich in meat is associated with erectile dysfunction. The film Game Changers made by James Cameron and due to come out in 2019, follows an interesting experiment: three fit men eat a plant-based meal and then a meat-based meal and then the amount and frequency of their erections at night was measured (4). Guess what Aaron Spitz, the urologist who carried out the experiment, found? After the plant-based meal the men all had 300 to 500 more frequent erections and were 10 to 15% harder.
Looking for some help to get started with healing that endothelium? RYH offers you an excellent and easy way to adjust to the eating habits that optimise those erections!
References
1 Esposito K, Ciotola M, Giugliano F, et al. Mediterranean diet improves erectile function in subjects with the metabolic syndrome. Int J Impot Res. 2006
2 Stryer L (1995). Biochemistry, 4th Edition. W.H. Freeman and Company. p. 732.
3 Kapil V, Khambata RS, Robertson A, Caulfield MJ, Ahluwalia A. Dietary nitrate provides sustained blood pressure lowering in hypertensive patients: a randomized, phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Hypertens. 2015;
4 Dean Ornish MD. Healing Hearts. In: Food Revolution Summit 2018.