i don’t get when people say “drop the sugar. too much sugar is bad for you. it will kill testosterone.” i eat about 90-110 grams of sugar daily but from fruits and healthy stuff. does that actually makes a difference?
Nope.
Sugar is sugar. 100 grams daily is a pretty good amount, equivalent to about 5 apples a day. If you’re trying to be strict about your diet, cut back on sugary fruits a little. If your results are satisfactory and you feel fine, then keep doing what you’re doing.
What people? I have never heard that.
AHA recommends 37.5g a day. Your needs may be higher though.
FRUCTOSE from sucrose gets send straight to the liver from the digestive tract and gets turned into liver glycogen, and excess fructose gets promptly turned into triglycerides which either raise blood triglycerides or deposit as liver fat-both of which result in decreased insulin sensitivity. From what I have read, the liver can pretty much manage about 4% of daily calories as fructose (8% as sucrose) per day without raising triglycerides or causing blood fructose levels to rise. That is about 50 grams of sucrose per day on a 2500 calorie diet. This also goes way up if you are training very hard.
Glucose may as well be starch from a metabolic standpoint. Fructose is different because it is so toxic in the bloodstream that the body must send it directly to the liver and either turn it into glucose or triglycerides to keep it out of the bloodstream.
Insulin actually stimulates testosterone and inhibits sex hormone binding protein which blocks the effects of testosterone. Insulin regulates testosterone and sex hormone-binding globulin concentrations in adult normal weight and obese men - PubMed
Now fructose supposedly inflammatory, as are omega-6 fatty acids. Any inflammatory substance will trigger cortisol and cortisol production robs raw materials from sex hormones, especially if the inflammation is chronically elevated. Poor sleep also raises cortisol dramatically and so it would rob test. Excess fructose that gets into the bloodstream has been shown to cause inflammation in endothelial lining, so it would logically raise cortisol and rob test.
I gave up 90% of sugar about 3 years ago when I realized the correlation between too much sugar intake and ED. The biggest change was to eliminate sugar-containing soft drinks, the vanilla lattes I was drinking daily, and the excessive sweet tooth that resembled an uglier version of cookie monster.
I still get sugar in condiments, dark chocolate, and a few other items like protein shakes in super low quantities.
I substituted a truck load of fruit - probably too much (I was eating over a pound of black grapes per day!). My doctor told me that I went overboard and was almost as bad as the sugar itself. Once I leveled out my intake, I felt better. Now I eat fruit, but in more reasonable quantities.
And every doctor I saw wanted to know about my sugar intake (as well as my high fructose corn syrup intake from soft drinks).
In the long run, even if it doesn’t solve ED issues, I was happy to make the switch to sugar free.
1 to 2 cups of fruit is all you want a day.
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