Not in the mood for some whoopie? Finding it more and more difficult to be intimate with your partner? Sure, age may play a role, and stress too, but did you ever think that your diet could be to blame for your low libido?
It shouldn’t be too surprising that diet plays a role in your libido – diet plays a role in many aspects of your health.
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When we eat healthy and clean, we feel our best. This is because we are well nourished and our body is able to perform at its best – even in the bedroom.
Your body is all interconnected, so when one area isn’t at its best, then it can cause a chain reaction which can eventually reduce libido and impair your sexual performance. This is why there isn’t just one vitamin or nutrient above others to improve libido. You need a healthy combination of several different vitamins and nutrients to perform your best.
Joy Stephenson-Laws, the author of Minerals, told HollywoodLife.com, “Healthy foods contain the essential nutrients such as antioxidants and amino acids that help improve blood flow to the genital area and allow for a firmer erection. Unhealthy dietary habits, which includes alcohol, may take away your inhibitions, but it also acts as a depressant, which can negatively affect your sexual performance.” For men especially, “chronic use of alcohol can shrink the testes.”
Other foods that can negatively impact sexual performance include foods high in saturated fats, like fried foods and red meat, as they can clog your arteries which impairs blood flow from reaching the genitals.
So, what does Joy recommend to have a healthy sex life? She suggests, “Healthy people tend to eat foods from which they can get a balanced amount of each of the six basic nutrients – protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. A good balance of these nutrients will ensure a healthy lifestyle and better sex.”
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Specific recommendations Joy offers is that women ensure their iron levels are healthy as iron can impact sexual health, along with reproduction. For men, maintaining healthy levels of zinc is important, as zinc plays an important role in reproductive hormones. She explained, “Some studies suggest that zinc may also help with premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction. Zinc can be found in eggs, milk, beans, and whole grains.”
Therefore, if you are lagging in the libido and sex department, you will want to ensure you are eating a variety of healthy foods to ensure that you are getting adequate levels of a variety of vitamins and nutrients.
Related: 7 surprising foods that boost libido
